01 - Beach Murders

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
On the twelfth of January nineteen sixty five, marian Schmidt
and Christine Sharrick, both age fifteen, were found murdered on
a desolate, isolated stretch of beach just north of Pernulla,
south of Sydney. The case would come to be known
as the Wander Beach murders. One mention of the word
Wander is enough to send chills down the spine of
those who remember the case that dominated the television reports,
radio air waves and print media of the day. The

(00:36):
killing spark one of the biggest men and hunts Australia
has ever seen. The police file on the cases over
ten thousand pages long and over fourteen thousand people have
been interviewed. Police efforts to sold the case have been
described as exhaustive, and leeds have been followed up all
around Australia. Despite the best efforts of police, no charges
have ever been laid and the case remains unsolved to

(00:56):
this day. One the case contains many more questions than answers.
What drew Marianne and Christine to the Wonder sand Hills
that day? Had they pray arranged to meet someone? Were
they just in the wrong place at the wrong time,
speculation and many different theories have surrounded the case since
day one.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Only one thing is clear.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Vicious and ruthless killer has never been brought to justice.

(01:44):
The Schmith family migrated to Australia from Germany in nineteen
fifty eight along with Marianne. They were her parents Helmut
and Elizabeth, older brother Helmet Junior, younger brothers Hans Peter
and wulfgane Any younger sister Trixie. Another brother, Normant, was
born Muscle family was in Australia. Upon their arrival, they
stated various microcamps and then they finally settled in their
family home in Brush Road, West Ride, in the northwest

(02:05):
of Sydney.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
The Schmid's been.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Next door to Christine Sherrick, who was living in Brush
Road with her grandparents, Jim and Jeanette take. Christine's father
had recently passed away and her mother had remarried, and
so Christine elected to live with her grandparents. Christine and
Mariam formed an instant bond. They were always in each
other's company. They were inseparable. Christine's uncle described of their friendship.

(02:29):
They did not go out much and their main entrance
were centered around their homes. They were always in each
other's company and neither went out with boys. Both girls
were described as quiet, well behaved. They were good in school.
They attended church regularly with their parents. They weren't known
to hang around any unsavory characters. They're even described as
being somewhat shy. In nineteen sixty four, Helmets Senior passed away.

(02:56):
One can only imagine how much tighter the bond between
Christine and Marianne would have become.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Both losing fathers. They were close to.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
At such a young age, and like any other teenage girls,
they had a love of the beach. They had an
interest in music, special mention for Elvis, and of course
a keen natural interest in boys of their own age.
The only beach marian and Christine ever visited was Cronulla.
Whilst their journey to Cannulla Beach was around two hours

(03:22):
each way, it was the only Sydney beach that was
accessible by train at the time. The girls that attended
Connella Beach just recently on Year's Day that year in
nineteen sixty five, any days before their murder, whiles so
at Cornella Beach, they went for a walk north to
the wonder seam Hills. The next day, marian visited the
beach again with her brothers and sisters. Christine didn't make

(03:44):
that trip, and on this second trip, marian left her
family for a little while, and when she returned, she
had mentioned that she'd been for a walk to wander.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
She didn't say why.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
In early January nineteen sixty five, Elizabeth, Marianne's mother, was
admitted to hospital to undergo an operation.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
She left her eldest children.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Helmer Junior, and Marianne in charge of the household while
she was in hospital recovery. On the ninth of January,
Christine and marian visited Elizabeth in hospital. Marianne asked if
he and Christine could take her younger brothers and sisters
to Canela Beach the following day. Elizabeth gave them permission
to do so. As it turned out, the weather that
next day, on the tenth of January was terrible and

(04:22):
so Marianne and Christine postponed their beach trip until the
following day, Monday, the eleventh of January. Now, in the
morning of the eleventh, whilst getting ready for the beach,
Christine mentioned to her grandmother, Jeannette, that it would be
fun to walk along in the sandhills again. Jeanette, aware
of how far away the wonder seaned Healers actually were

(04:44):
from the main part of Carnulla Beach some two kilometers, replied,
don't go today, Love, you've.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Got the four little ones with you. It's too far.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Christine tried to argue the point, but was again told
by her grandmother, don't go to.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
The sea and hills.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
So what are the wonder sand Hills and what were
the girls seemingly fascination with them? The Wonder sand Hills,
otherwise known as Green Hills, run behind Wander Beach and
continue north up to Colonel One. There is an Aboriginal
name meaning sand hills by the sea beach. Wonder Beach
is part of a longer stretch of beach coastline that
starts with Granella Beach, includes a north Granella Beach, Alura Beach,

(05:23):
and then Wander Beach. The distance from the main Cronella
Beach to the wander sand Hills is about two kilometers,
and then the sand hills themselves run a lot longer
past that. The area in and around Wander Surf Club
and the main beach area itself were clean and pristine,
But the Wonder sand Hills were a very different, isolated story.

(05:44):
In nineteen sixty five, Wonder sand Hills were described as
Sydney's filthiest and loneliest stretch of beach, littered with smash bottles,
old shoes, rusted cans, broken poise, any other amount of
discarded junk and rubbish that you can think of. This
meant the Wonder sand Hills were a perfect spot for
people to meet up who didn't necessarily want to be seen.

(06:07):
Nineteen sixty five, it was a far far more conservative
time than what we experienced today. Incredibly, homosexuality was actually
a criminal offense, and it wouldn't be made legal for
another eighteen years. Certain parts of those Seainhills were a
popul location for men to meet up and engage in
casual sex. The area was also known to attract nude sunbathors,

(06:31):
other couples engaging in public sex, public masturbators, nudists. There's
general perverted types who liked to spy on people engaging
in sexual activity, who liked to spy on women, who
liked to harass women and proposition them for sex.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
Things like that.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Cars could be parked behind the Sandhills, and there are
a number of trails that provided access to them from
the Sandhills without having to walk along the main beach areas.
Many local residents at the time were well aware of
what was going on in this san Hils, and they refuse.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
To even let their children anywhere near there.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
It doesn't sound like the ideal place for too well behaved,
generally quiet type fifteen year old girls to go. But
remember Christine and Marianne weren't from the local area, not
even really close. It was a two hour journey each way.
Although local residents were well aware of what was going
on there, it doesn't mean Marianne and Christine were aware.

(07:27):
It was nineteen sixty five, after all, information wasn't as
readily available, and it didn't travel nearly as fast as
what it does today. There's absolutely no information to suggest
that marian and Christine were aware of what went on
in the sand Hills at all. So on that morning,
on the eleventh of January, Christine and Maria impacked for
their day the beach. Christine packed the thermos accordial, but

(07:47):
she took no food. She instead took a one pound
note and said that she would buy lunch Maria made
sandwiches and packs some fruit. This information would become crucial
later on. All set around eight thirty am, Christine, Marianne,
Marianne's younger brothers Peter, Wolfgang and Norbert, and her younger
sister Trixie made the walk to west Ryde train station.

(08:11):
Peter was aged ten, Wolfgang seven, Norbit five, and her
sister Trixie was nine. Her brother's helmet, Junior and Hahns
elected to stay at home and complete some household chores.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
They caught the train from west Ryde.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
To Redfern and at Redfern they would have to change
trains to go to Kernalla.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
And it was on this first part.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Of the journey between west Ryde and Redfern that a
fifteen year old male only described as being tall, struck
up a conversation with marian and Christine. It's unknown what
they talked about, but when they arrived at Redfern station
and had the trains, the boy who struck up that
conversation remained on the train. He didn't follow them. They

(08:53):
didn't talk to anyone else on the journey. They finally
arrived at Cronulla Beats around eleven and when they arrived,
they were met by the news that Caronulla Beach was
closed due to dangerous seas and strong winds. If only
they had turned around and gone home, but they didn't.
They headed to the southern end of Carnella Beach, hanging
out around the rocks and Wolfgame cappestoring Marianne that he

(09:17):
wanted to go for a swim. Finally, she gave in
and took him to a shallow, more secluded spot for
a quick dip. They then rejoined the others and they
ate lunch at the rocks. At some time, while they
around the rocks, Wolfgang saw Marianne and Christine talking to
a boy. He was described as being sixteen years old,
medium bill, long fair hair, and he was hunting for

(09:39):
crabs at the time with the homemade spear.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Wolfgang couldn't hear what they were talking about. Shortly after they.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Ate lunch, Marianne suggested going for a walk up to
the seand hills at Wander. The others agreed, so they
left their belongings at the rocks and all walked north,
beginning their two kilometer journey to the seam hills. But
as they got to Wander Beach, the walk had become
too much for the younger children. The wind was howling.
It was whipping up the sea and sticking their legs,

(10:07):
so Wolfgang found a spot that was sheltered from the wind.
Marian and Christine told the younger kids to stay put
and they would go back south to grab their belongings
from the rocks so they could organize to start heading home.
They mentioned they'd be about twenty minutes, but clearly marian
and Christine had no intention of.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Going home just yet.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Instead of walking south back to where their gear was,
they continued north to the sandhills.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Peter yelled out, you're going the wrong way.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
The girls just looked back and laughed and kept walking
into the sandhills. It's the last tie nor but Peter
and Tricksy ever saw Christine and Marianne alive. After about
ten minutes, Peter sent Wolfgang to look for the girls.
Wolfgang walked to the sandhills and it's here that he
sees marian and Christine talking to a boy. He describes

(11:00):
this boy as being a big boy, age sixteen, long
fair hair, had white cream on his nose, carrying a
blue towel, wearing light gray trousers, he didn't have a
shirt on, and he was quite sun tin, so basically
he described him as a surfy looking type boy. Wolfgang

(11:22):
says that the surfy boy looked angry and he was
asking the girls their names. He decided against following them
any further, and the girls disappeared with the nail into
the sanduels. About ten minutes later, Wolfgang saw the surfy
team walking back out of the sand hills, who was alone.
There was no side of the girls. He now had

(11:43):
the blue towel tied around his neck. Wolfgang actually asked
the surfi where are the girls, but he didn't answer,
and he just walked straight past him. The peered Trixie
or nor but ever reports seeing this Surfy team. Wolfgang's
story this encounter is subject of much debate. It actually

(12:05):
changed a few times and sort of evolved over several interviews.
He kept adding vital pieces of information as time went on. Now,
there could be many reasons why this happened, but it
was a source of frustration for detectives at the time,
and as such, Wolfgang's version has been treated with a
little bit of skepticism. We can only speculate why the

(12:31):
girls walked into the Sandhills that day that they were
obviously determined to go there. Christine had mentioned it to
her grandmother that morning, and her grandmother told her not
to go. It was a two kilometer walk with young
children in how in wind, poor weather conditions it makes
that two kilometers that much more longer, and not only
that the actual sandhills themselves stretched for kilometers further past

(12:53):
that point. This convinced many people that they had planned
to meet someone at the Sandhills that day. Certainly that
was the initial police theory that they went with in
the early stages of the investigation. One factor, though, is
that Christina Marian had originally planned to go to the beach,
so they foll if you remember, they canceled due to

(13:14):
poor weather and their plans had changed and they were
now they're on the Monday. If they were planning to
meet someone pre arranged, wasn't as easy to reschedule back
then as it is today with mobile phones and social media.
So if they were in fact planning to meet someone
in those sanuels that day, it's far more likely that
they met that someone that day. Monday, the eleventh of January,

(13:42):
after Wolfgame lost sight of Christina Marianne I witnessed. Denis
Dostein described seeing the girls hurry through the Saniels. Dennis
is actually the last name person to see the girls alive.
He says, Christina marian were walking fast. They appeared to
be in a hurry. They were about eight hundred meters
away from where their bodies were at the time. One
of the girls was constantly looking over her shoulder as

(14:05):
if someone was following them. Dennis had a bit of
a look, but he couldn't see anyone. Didn't seem suspicious,
so we didn't think too much more of it. While
Marian and Christine were gone, Wolfgang nor but Peter and
Trixy continued to wait. After a while, Peter Trixy Wolfgang
had another look around for the girls. They couldn't find them.
There's no trace of them. At no stage did Wolfgang

(14:27):
make mention of the surf team. After a few hours
were waiting, they became aware of time was slipping away.
The last training out of Coronella was at six pm
and they had to get there, so they made the
journey back then to the southern end of Coronela Beach.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
They found their belongings where they had left them on
the rocks. They were untouched.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
They made the last train out of Cornello and a
riot home at about eight pm on a Junior and
Christine's grandparents were made aware of Christine Marian's disappearance and
the police were called. No major alarm bells went off
for the police, who are tended to take the missing
person's report. Just before midnight, two fifteen year old girls,

(15:09):
the best of friends. They were out for a day
at the beach. They walked off under no duress or threat.
They were happy, they were laughing. The usual questions would
have been asked, had they done this before? Is there
anywhere you think they might be? Could they better friends place?
Do they have boyfriends? Of some concern though for police
that it was out of character for them. They had

(15:29):
happy home lives, I well behaved. They'd never run off before,
so they're not the types just to sort of go
missing without letting anyone know where they were, and especially
to leave four young children at the beach alone. The
report was broadcast to all police stations in the Sydney area.
Of course, the police around Cronulla and the surrounding patrols

(15:50):
would have been paying much more attention than the others.
Just imagine how different it was back then. In nineteen
sixty five. There's no mobile phanes to track, no social
media accounts to check, no instant media releases. I could
go viral and keep the public on the lookout. There
was none of that. But even if all that modern
technology was in existence, it would have been too late.

(16:11):
Christine and Mariam were already dead. About two thirty pm
on the twelfth of January nineteen sixty five, Peter Smith,
age seventeen, was walking through the sand hills with his
two younger nephews. He saw what he initially thought was
a stormannequin line in the sand. He went in and
had a closer look, and it was there that the
groom reality of what he had found became clear filled

(16:35):
would shock, horror, panic. Peterran to won the surf club,
It's about fifteen hundred meters away to the south. He
notified the caretaker, Barriezi, that he had found the dead
body of a young girl, and he asked to use
a phone so he could call police. Police arrived, They
met Peter at Wonder Surf Club and then he led
them up to the burial site. On closer inspection of

(16:57):
the scene, it was noticed by police obviously that three
feet sticking out from under the sear, not two, and
they already horrific discovery became that much more horrific when
it was discovered that there were two bodies, not one.
Now they weren't really buried as such, a was just
sort of covered with sand and not that deep. The
wind overnight had blown the sceand off. Local Cronulla detective

(17:22):
soon notified the criminal investigation branch and more specialist detectives
made their way to Wando, including the initial officer in
charge of the case, Detective Inspector Haines. The director of
Forensic Medicine, doctor Lane, and his assistant doctor Brighton also attended.
They thoroughly examined the crime zine and portable lighting had

(17:42):
to be brought in so they could continue their work
into the night. It didn't take long for police to
link the gruesome discovery to the missing person report of
Christina Marian, and not long after this a positive identification
was made. The crime I've seen itself was two sandhills
back from where they started on the beach side, one

(18:04):
hundred and fifty meters from the water's edge. And about
fifteen hundred meters north we warn the surf club. Despite
not being at the beach that day, Hans Schmidt visited
the scene later on and he had this to say
about it. The place that girls were killed was very isolated,
even though it was only two dunes back from the beach.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
It was so quiet.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
I couldn't even hear the waves crashing. You could scream
your head off and no one would hear a thing.
No one could have heard the girl screaming for help.
Blood and signs of a struggle were located thirty two
meters away from where the bodies lay, and there was
a drag mark going all the way from this site
back to where Christine and Mariam were. An examination of

(18:44):
the scene led Detective Inspector Haines to say this, it
looks as though the Schmidt girl was knocked down and
then stabbed.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Christine was killed about twenty yards away, and her.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Body was then dragged back to where the Schmid girl lay.
It's believed Christine winess Marianne being attacked and then ran off,
only to be called a short distance away. At intervals
of about every three meters along the dra marks, there
were much heavier concentrations of blood. These heavier concentrations were
consistent with the person who was dragging the body stopping

(19:16):
for arrest. Christine was slim, described as a petitue girl,
so the implication year was clear whoever was dragging her
may not have been that physically strong. Detectives also located
car tracks about thirty meters west from where Christine was attacked,
showing the killer could have fled the scene in a vehicle,
although it's not known if these tracks were related. The

(19:39):
killer could have also easily escaped over the back of
the sea hills towards Captain could drive, where he could
have disappeared without ever being back on the main beach area.
The post mortem of the girls was conducted by the
director of Fernsic Medicine, doctor Lane, at the City Morgue.
Both Christine and Mariamne were savagely attacked. It was one

(19:59):
of them most horrific crimes, if not the most horrific
crime Australia had ever seen. The attack was so savage
that the full details were never released to the public.
Christine's official cause of death was hemorrhage as a result
of penetrating wounds to the chest associated with the fracture
of the skull and injury to the brain. Marianne's official
cause of death was from hemorrhage as a result of

(20:20):
a cutthroat and penetrating wounds to the chest. There were
also clear signs both girls had been sexually assaulted. Christine's
pens had been removed, and marianne swimming costume had been
cut and rolled up, exposing the lower half of a body.
A scene and sample was also found.

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Speaker 1 (21:08):
The time of death was estimated to be between two
pm and midnight on Monday, the eleventh of January. The
exact time was difficult to pinpoint exactly, as they'd been
covered by hot sand. It was discovered that Christine had
undigested cabbage and celery in her stomach, which she would
have had to have eaten within one hour of her death.
This immediately stood out as the girls had only taken

(21:28):
sandwiches and fruit to the beach, and cabbage and celery
weren't on the sandwiches.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
As well as this, it was revealed that.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Christine had a blood alcohol reading of point oh one
to five, which would have been enough to have had
a midy of beer or a nip of spirits just
prior to her death, although it also could have been
the result of her consuming several drinks in the hours
leading up to her death, it was impossible to know which.
Christine was not known to ever drink. Her family stated
that she never touched alcohol. Her mother said that she

(21:56):
couldn't even stand the smell of it, though were horrified.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
The oud alarm bells were going off here.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
The food found in Christine's stomach was different to what
they had brought to the beach, and they certainly didn't
take any alcohol with him. The food in Christine's stomach
was consumed within one hour of a death, meaning it's
likely that Christine shared food and alcohol with the killer.
As a result of the post mortemn police were of

(22:26):
the belief that they were looking for a fishing knife.
They were also looking for a heavy blunt instrument that
was used to inflict the injuries on Christine, such as
a rock, a lump of wood, or a piece of
metal Pipe. Wolfgang, Peter Trixi in Norbert were questioned extensively
on the thirteenth of January. They were taken back to
the Senials by police to retrace their steps and to

(22:47):
try and get them to recall as much information as
they possibly could. It's here that detectives first learned Wolfgang
saw surf team talking to Christine and Marianne just before
they disappeared into the Senials. Now, remember, Wolfgang kept changing
history as the weeks went on, and kept adding in
vital clues.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Well.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
He later revealed that the surpenteen he had seen Christina
Marianne was in actual fact, the same boy hunting for
crabs he had seen them talking to earlier in the
day at the rocks at the southern end of the beach.
About a month later, in another interview, he added that
the surpenteen had a knife and a pouch around his
waist when he walked off with the girls, and when
he walked back out of the sandhills alone, that knife
was missing. Why his story changed numerous times is anyone's guess,

(23:29):
but it's not at all surprising.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
That his memory was a bit muddled up.

Speaker 1 (23:33):
Remember, his father had just died, his mother had just
had a serious operation and was in hospital, his sister
had just been brutally murdered, and he was right there.
The amount of stress, trauma, fear, grief, guilt, any other
number of emotions that you could think of that seven
year old Wolfgange would have been experiencing is something that
most people wouldn't even be able to begin to imagine.

(23:56):
He was most likely in severe shock. There's no such
thing his grief counseling. Back then, it was a much
different time. People just expected to suck it up and
get on with it. So is it any wonder that
his memory was a bit muddled up? But the surfey
teening information from Wolfgang was the first breakthrough for detectives
and the hunt for the teen surfy suspect began. Every

(24:19):
media report, whether on TV, radio or in print, was
dominated with reports of the teen surfey suspect scene with
the girls just prior to their death. Now, the problem
with that description is that it match just about every
teenager in the Cronullo area, and not only the Cronullo area,
but a lot of areas. So I didn't narrow down
the surch anymore than saying police were looking for a

(24:39):
teenager would have Police were quick to try and make
the point that they didn't necessarily believe the teen Surfey
suspect was the killer, the fear being that people who
were at the beach that day who might have saw
something that didn't fit with the teen Surfey scenario wouldn't
come forward. It didn't take long for police to be
swamped with calls and information about the teen Surfey. They

(25:01):
received hundreds of calls a day. It was even revealed
that a team matching that description was kicked off on
the beach only a few days before the killings for
harassing young girls. The media ran world and Police Commissioner
Norman Allen made a public appeal for that Surfey team
to come forward. The hunt for the Surfey team was

(25:22):
in full swing, leading to the media reporting that full
suspects had been detained and were being question one as
far away as Queensland. The truth was that they were
never really suspects at all, and the teenagers had just
been arrested on other minor charges. The fact that they
may have looked like surveys was enough for the media
to label them suspects. It was basically the media was

(25:42):
just trying to get one up on each other for
the latest scoop the breaking story. A mammoth search of
the crime scene and surrounding one the sand Hills area commenced.
Police were sent from all over Sydney to help, and
even police trainees were sent in to help. The search
wasn't easy. Remember, the sins were described as Sydney's filthier speech,
littered with all sorts of discarded rubbish. This camp of

(26:05):
the serves for clues greatly. Several items were located, including
shoes and even some knives, but they were quickly ruled
out as having anything to do with the murders. By Thursday,
police had secured a front end loader from sutherland Shire
Council so they could dig up the sand, which they
then put through a makeshift sift. Army experts with metal
and mind detectors were even sent in to help search.

(26:29):
Police ended up digging five hundred tons of sand and
found very little to assist their investigation. The only piece
of physical evidence that was ever located was a broken
piece of knife blade. It was about one inch long
and had a clear cutting edge. It was thought to
be from a kitchen knife. The piece of knife tested
positive for blood, However, there was an insufficient amount to

(26:51):
conduct any further testing at the time. Doctor Lang would
later testify at the inquest that the stab wounds would
have been difficult to inflict with this particular piece broken blade,
although he did say that some cut marks on Christine
could have been made with a knife that had a
portion of blade missing.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
It was unclear of.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
This piece of blade was in fact part of the
murder weapon which had been broken off, such was the
savage nature of the attacks, or if it was completely unrelated.
It was nineteen sixty five. DNA forensic evidence wasn't unknown
thing until nineteen eighty six, twenty one years after the
wander Beach murders. On the fifteenth of January, Elizabeth Schmidt
broke a silence. She was still in hospital recovering from

(27:31):
her operation. Doctors had led her leave for a short
time to comfort their children when the news broke of
Marian's death.

Speaker 2 (27:38):
However, she was now back.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
She said, my daughter and the other young girl have
gone into eternal life. They have met their maker and
have therefore entered a new phase of existence.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Person responsible the murderer has his life.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Ahead of him. How he faces this life is something
I can not answer. But his life woul appear to
be spiritually speaking, poorer than anything else. He would always
be hunted and haunted. The mean responsible should meet his punishment,
and I think my husband would have felt the same way.
He should be made responsible for his action. At this time,

(28:18):
Commissioner Allen renewed his appeal for the SURFU team to
come forward.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
In a press conference.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
He said, I knew my appeal to the youth described
by wolfgange Schmidt to come forward. He should not be
influenced by published statements. He could very well clear the
air for us in our investigations. The published statements referred to,
of course, being the media report saying that surfteen was
the killer. The appeals from Commissioner Allan continued, and just
the next day he made yet another one. I knew

(28:45):
my appeal to this youth to come forward and tell
us what happened last Monday. Because he was seen coming
away alone from the scene, it does not necessarily follow
that he is the killer.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
He stressed.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
The police are of the belief that he was quite
possibly an innocent bystander. At the wrong place at the
wrong time, and it would not take long for police
to clear him of suspicion if he would just come
in and talk to them. The police really wanted to
catch up with the surf team. By this Dage Police
had commenced interviewing people who were at the beach.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
On Monday, the eleventh of January, over twenty people.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Who were there had been interviewed, more than forty detectives
had been a signful time for the case. In what
was one of the biggest men hunts Australia had ever seen.
Reports were continuing to come in from people all over
the state and even all over the country of people
matching the description of surf team that they were suspicious
of or suspected had involvement. Police received thousands upon thousands

(29:38):
of calls and they struggled to keep up with the
sheer volume of information that was coming in. Many feel
that a vital tip off for a vital piece of
information may have been lost amongst the thousands of calls
that were received. Both Christina and Marianne had kept diaries,
and through those diaries police learned that on their visit

(29:59):
to the beach on year his day. Just a few
days before their death, they had met two boys who
they had sheared kisses with. On the sixteenth of January,
police made a public appeal for those two boys to
come forward, and they did.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
They were only known as Ted and Jim.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
They were interviewed by police and confirmed that they had
met Marian and Christine at the beach on Yusday.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
However, they had made no plans to meet again.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Their alibis checked out and they were quickly ruled out
of the investigation.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
On the eighteenth of January, the media ran wild.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
At a teenager who had a pair of blood stained
trousers was being held by police. A pair of blood
stained trousers were found on Cookie Beach and they were
later identified as being the teenager who was being held.
Wolfgang was hurried to run with police station where a
lineup was conducted, but Wolfgang did not identify him as
the surf team, and it turned out that this teenager

(30:49):
who was being held had a simple explanation for the
blood on his trousers, and it was discovered he wasn't
it won the beach on the.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Day of the murders. He was quickly released.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Detectives were being flooded with not only hip hops about surfteen,
but they are also being flooded with information about several
other suspicious males who were seen at the beach on
the day of the killings and the day leading up
to them. A sketch artist was brought in to shine
assist putting some names to the descriptions.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
It was on the eighteenth of January.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
That the police made their first appeal to the public for
the boy hunting crabs that day to come forward. Now,
the description they released of the boy hunting crabs is
pretty much identical to surfteen, and remember Wolfgang would bound
to say that they were one in the same person.
On the twentieth of January, separate funeral services were held
for Marianne and Christine. The service for Marianne was held

(31:39):
in the West Chapel of the Metropolitan Funeral Home at
Burwood and she was then cremated at Brookwood Crematorium. The
service for Christine was held at Saint Michael's Catholic Church,
meadow Bank and she was then buried at Liverpool Semetery
near her father. Both services attracted hundreds of mourners. Detectives
and police photographers also attended both services. They were working

(31:59):
on the theory that the girls knew their killer and
had arranged a meeting at the seniors, and they hoped
that Surphie teen may have been at the funerals. Just
about every male in attendance was photographed for later reference.
At the service of marian Schmidt, two teenage sisters were
separated and interviewed separately by detectives. The father of these
two sisters had just alerted police that they may have

(32:22):
valuable information concerning in the background of Marianne and Christine,
and they hadn't realized the value of the information until now.
Of course, detectives were on high alert and they swiftly
interviewed the girls, but unfortunately no light was thrown on
the investigation. By this stage, police has started to sort
through some of the sheer volume of information that was
coming through, and there were two people who they were

(32:44):
particularly interested in talking to early on now these people
were seen by Dennis Stoston, who, if remember, was the
naice known person to have seen the girls alive. Along
with seeing the girls walk through the hills that day,
he also saw a number of other people. Two of
particular interest to police were a tall pale nineteen year

(33:05):
old male and an older male described to be between
forty and fifty years old with a stocky building ten
othery skin. Despite their best efforts, police were never able
to identify these two males and they never came forward.
Another witness, Francis Williams, fifty seven years old, was at
the beach that day. He came forward and he described

(33:26):
seeing Christine, Marianne and the younger children at about one
pm walking together north along the beach towards Wander. They
were about one hundred meters north of one the surf
club at the time. Francis thought that they looked to
be in a hurry, walking quite quickly.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Along with the children.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Francis also describes seeing a number of other people in
and around Wander that day. They saw a male who
was sunbathing in the sandhills, and as Francis approached him,
he got up, shook seeing off him and walked away
towards one of the surf club. He saw two young
boys playing on the beach, two people fishing on the beach,
whi a man who was some baking with what was
described as a piece of corrugated iron over his head.

(34:07):
Now the media around wild and he became a suspect
at the time, too was assumed he's obviously a perverted
using a corrugated iron to hide himself, spying on girls
or whatever. But remember it was a windy day, Paul Weather,
he might have just been blocking the scene out of
his eyes that was being blown in from the wind,
but he was of interest in police. There was also

(34:28):
a woman who had become bogged behind the Saniels, and
she was assisted by Francis and another unknown male who
drove off in a utility. So not only were they
getting reports of suspicious people sided around Wonder that day,
but they were getting reports of a lot of other
people who are at the base that they who not
necessarily suspicious, but they were there they may have seen something,

(34:49):
and these people weren't coming forward, they weren't making themselves known.
It was frustrating police, so they actually released details of
these eight people that Francis saw to the media, and
the woman who became bobbed in the scene actually came forward,
but she wasn't able to assist in the investigation. Unfortunately,
they never identified only of the seven other people. So

(35:14):
many people were at the beach that day, who never
came forward. Remember what one the sin was was renowned
for at this time. But there's no suggestion that all
those people were involved in that sort of behavior.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
I mean, there's two people fishing, there was two kids playing.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
It's unknown why so many people never came forward, whether
they were too scared to come forward, or they didn't
want to get involved. They thought they didn't see anything,
so I was a waste of time.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
But you never know.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Something that they saw that they may have thought was insignificant.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
May have been vital.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
On the twenty second of January, an interesting article was
published in the Sydney Morning Herald. The article was only
very small, buried back on page ten. By now, other
news had started to sort of filter through to the
front pages, such as the health of Winston Churchill and
the Rolling Stones visit to Australia, but it was here
buried amongst other articles. A small headline read wonder victim's

(36:14):
claim lapses. The article details that Mary and Schmidt was
struck by a car on the corner of Victoria Road
and Brush Road at ride on the seventh of May
nineteen sixty four. She suffered a fractioned skull and spent
nine days in the hospital. As a result of that accident,
the family had submitted a compensation claim seeking twenty thousand pounds.

(36:36):
Australia was still using the pound currency at the time.
The relative sum of money of twenty thousand pounds back
then in today's money would be somewhere around half a
million dollars, quite a significant summer money. The claim was
due to be heard later that year in nineteen sixty five. However,
as a result of her death, the claim lapsed and
it would not proceed any further. Police were starting to

(36:59):
be I'm frustrated by their inability to identify the surf team,
and their inability to identify a number of other people
at the beach that day, and their lack of cooperation
in coming forward to assist the investigation. On the twenty
second of January, Commissioner Norman Allen made yet another appeal
to the public. He said, I have, on more than
one occasion asked the public to assist in every way
within their power with information which might help detectives engage

(37:22):
on the case.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
I now make a further and equally sincere appeal.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
I do this because I am satisfied that there must
be some persons in the community who would have some
information that they have not brought to the notice of police.
It is not unreasonable to assume that someone somewhere in
our community has seen or heard something which would be
of great assistance in this matter. For example, since this crime,
a person may not have been seen at places he
used to frequent, or there may have been a change
in pattern of his normal activity and behavior. It is

(37:49):
possible that to someone's knowledge, he has said or done
something which would give rise to a reasonable suspicion that
he might have been in some way associated with the crime.
That is the type of vital information would like to get.
On the twenty third of January, Skeetz was published in
the papers of the Wonder Beach and Sand Hills area,
showing the crime scene and the different locations where each

(38:10):
of the seven people were thought to be. That was
cited by Francis Williams, who still hadn't come forward, That
is the woman who was bogged in the sceand she
actually came forward. But of the people fishing, the boys
playing in the scend, etc. The male with the corrugated iron.
This did generate a response from the public and it
resulted in a number of other people coming forward who

(38:32):
were there that day that didn't realize just how close
to the crime scene they actually were. However, it didn't
help in tracking down any of the seven people that
Francis Williams cited. About this time, a psychiatrist released a
report revealing their thoughts on the killer. They believe that
he lived in the local area and had intimate knowledge

(38:52):
of the Sandhills, and could even be one of the
purpose who frequented the Wonder sand Hills. This information being
released to the media obviously wouldn't be couraged any of
the people that were there who may have been engaging
in that type of behavior to come forward.

Speaker 2 (39:05):
I mean they would have thought that they were going
to be held responsible for the crime.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Psychiatrists went on to describe the killers most likely being
a loner who spent time at won the Sandhills, spying
on nude sundayors and people having sex. They felt that
the killer committed the crimes on impulse rather than it
being planned out, and that he may have acted out
on previous urges he'd been experienced When he saw Maryanne
and Christine walking alone through the Sandhills. The investigation continued,

(39:33):
but there were still no big breaks. It was hampered
by the lack of physical evidence at the scene, the
lack of witnesses, the inability to identify the people that
were seen at the beach, and the unwillingness of those
people to come forward.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
To try and combat this.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
On the twenty ninth of January, then you said that
I was premium, mister Jack Renshaw, and nounced the ten
thousand pounds reward for any information leading to the arrest
and conviction for the person responsible for the murders. The
currency changed to dollars soon after this reward was announced,
and so the reward was changed to twenty thousand dollars.
The relative sum of money today would be about two

(40:09):
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, so it was a significant reward.
It was hoped that it would encourage people who are
at the beach that day who either couldn't be bothered
or who came from the groups of people who didn't
want them to be known by police, to come forward.
That reward is still in existence today, but incredibly it
has never been increased. That still stands at twenty thousand dollars,

(40:30):
so it might be time for that figure to come up.
Two girls who were riding horses on the beach that
day came forward and they reported yet another suspicious mail.
They said that about four hundred meters away from the
murder scene they saw a male walking around in the
nude through the saniels. One of the girls he eed

(40:51):
out to him, what are you doing, but he didn't answer.
He just ignored them and kept walking is carrying the
clothes in his hand. So yet another person was added
to the list of vicious people at the beach that day,
and like the others, he was never identified either, and
he obviously never came forward. On the first of February,
police thought they had what was their first major breakthrough
in the case, discovering an important piece of evidence, or

(41:14):
so they thought at the time. By this stage police
had been placed permanently in the one to See and
the hills keeping watch. It was hoped that some of
the people that had been seen at the beach on
the day the murders that hadn't yet come forward would
be sighted, or even hoped that a surfey team would
show up again. Of course, they weren't in uniform. They
were dressed as sun babers, so that they're undercover if

(41:35):
you will. Now, a police officer on Sandhill Wash located
a blue tower washed up on the shore. Of course,
the Surfey team described by Wolfgang was carrying a blue tower,
so the tower was immediately set for scientific testing and
it was hoped that this tower was the one belonged
to Surfey team described by Wolfgang, But all it was
was another frustrating dead end. A thirteen year old boy

(41:58):
came forward when newsbroker in the media and he identified
it as one that he had lost at the beach
only a few days before. The large reward that was
put up with the new South Wales government was leading
to all types of people calling in. The investigation started
to become very frustrated. False leads, dead ends, hoax callers,

(42:18):
false confessions, wives ringing up about their husbands, all sorts
of things, and by now anyone who resembled a surfteen
had a phone call made to police about them. And
while no doubt most of the calls being made to
police were well intentioned, the truth of the matter is
it was hindering the investigation. Every lead, every call that

(42:41):
came in had to be chased down followed up, and
that's where it's thought that vital information that was actually
important to the case could be lost amongst the pile
of useless information that was coming in. In April long
and nineteenth, two fifteen year old girls were attacked ring
About train station. It's only a short distance away from Cranulla.

(43:04):
The girls were walking together near the train station when
a fifteen year old male grabbed one of them. The
girls immediately screened and frightened the attacker off. The description
was very similar to that of the circuit team provided
by Wolfgang, so that certainly pushed the already frightened community.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Further to the edge.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
But the fact that the community was so much on edge,
I mean, this could have been totally unrelated to the
one the case. It could have been any random teenager
just approaching two girls to say hello or whatever and
grabbed one of them and they've screamed and everyone's run off.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
He didn't produce a knife or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
The full details of the attack were never released that
it's unclear exactly what happened, but no one was injured. Certainly,
by April police had waded through the sheer volume of
information that they come in and it led to the
release of six sketches who they considered suspects and that
they really wanted to speak to. This included men making

(44:00):
actual advances and comments towards women, the naked man seen
walking through the sand hills, another man exposing himself to
women a few months after the murders on the beach,
and of course the boy who had just attacked the
two girls at carrying bar.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
Wolfgang was unable to.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Help police with a sketch of the surf team as
he was just too agreeable everything the sketch artist said
would go along with so it was impossible.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
To make a sketch. But of particular interest to police.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Out of these six men were two men who they
thought would most be valuable to the investigation that they
really wanted to identify. The first came to be known
as the fat Man, so he was described as a
medium to plump build, between twenty five and thirty five
years old, about five feet eleven inches tall, slightly foreign
in appearance. He was described as carrying an orange and

(44:48):
white tower, wearing gray shousers and a white shirt. He
was carrying a radio and a newspaper at the time.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
What he did.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
He approached several women on the beasts on the day
of them and on the days leading up to the murders.
He had pornographic magazines with him and he was making
inappropriate comments to women, asking if they wanted to have
a look through the magazine, asking them how the sex
was in Sydney. He mentioned that he was from South Australia,
so police were very very keen to catch up with him,

(45:18):
but he, along with so many others, was never identified
and he never came forward. Another man who was of
particular interest in police was described as being eighteen to
twenty years old, with a slim build, light brown hair,
and he was wearing a long sleeve shirt tucked into
a pair of thorn shorts, and he had missing teeth.
He was also making inappropriate propositions to women, asking to

(45:41):
have sex with women, offering them money, things like that,
but again he was never identified either. So as starting
to get ridiculous now, the amount of people that police
wanted to speak to who they deemed to be suspicious,
who were at the beach on the day of the murders,
that were never identified and who never came forward. You'd
think that they would come forward, given what happened, the

(46:03):
brutal nature of the crimes, but they're out there somewhere.
Who knows that they're still alive. But if they are,
now's the time. On the twenty ninth of May, a
group of youths came forward stating that they'd found a
pair of flippers and a homemade crab spear about a
one kilometer away from where the girls were located. Now,

(46:25):
they found these only a few days after the murder,
and so it's not clear why they waited until the
twenty ninth of May to come forward and hand it in,
or couldn't find that anywhere, But regardless, they made themselves
name to police and the flippers and the spear were
handed in. Wolfgang was reinterviewed, but he was unable to
identify the spear. He couldn't remember if it's the same

(46:45):
one that the boy who was crabbing on the rocks
that spoke to Marion and Christine was using. It was
a promising lead, but it didn't end up going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Case file will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting
us by listening to this episode. Sponsors. Thank you for
listening to this episode's ads by supporting our sponsors. You
support case File to continue to deliver our quality content.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
The investigation really started to stall and by the beginning
of nineteen sixty six, the amount of full time detectives
on the case had dropped from forty down to eight.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
It was still being worked hard, but they.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Were just frustrated by the lack of ability to identify
a number of people at the beach and the amount
of useless information that was still coming in that they
were wasting their time. Basically, police were still assigned to
the wonder Stand Hills to watch for anything suspicious, but
all that ended up in achieving was they arrested a
number of people for sexual related offenses, but it got

(47:59):
them no closer identifying the killer. On the twenty ninth
of January sixty sixth, another brutal murder shocked the nation.
Fifty seven year old Wilhelmina Kruger was found murdered at
the Piccadilly shopping arcade in Woollongong, where she worked as
a cleaner. Willodongs in close proximity to wander It's less than.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
An hour's drive away.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
The murder was very horrific and it did bear similarities
to the wonder case that of a frenzied knife attack.
There were no suspects, no witnesses, there was a lack
of physical evidence, no attempt was made to hide a body.
It led many to believe the murder of Wilhelmina Kruger
was committed by the person responsible for Wander, and just

(48:41):
weeks later, on the twenty sixth of February, the body
of Annadellen Cole was found on Old Lamater Road, Meni,
southwest of Sydney, again in close proximity to both Wander
and Wollongong. She too had been the victim of a
brutal frenzied knife attack, almost identical to the attack committed
on Wilhelmina Kruger. Anna was working as an escort at

(49:02):
the time and she was last seen on the sixteenth
of February sixty sixth leaving a club in King's Cross.
She mentioned to a few friends in the club that
she was going to meet a client, and she was
never seen alive again. There was no witnesses, no suspects,
a lack of physical evidence, no attempt made to hide
the body. In actual fact, the killer returned to where
Anna was dumped and dragged the body out from behind

(49:24):
the bushes closer to the road so she would be found.
Police are almost certain the murders of Anna dal And
Coo and Wilhelmina Kruger were committed by the same person.
It's never been proven that the Wonder Case was linked
to both those murders, but many suspect that they are
just like the Wonder Case. The murders of Wilhelmina Kruger
and Anadelean CoA remained unsolved. On the twentieth of April

(49:49):
nineteen sixty six, the Current's inquest into the Wonder Case
was held. The inquest was presided over by City crit
to mister Looms. The amount of detectives working the case
full time was now down to about six. Investigation log
turtled over five thousand pages and over seven thousand people
had been interviewed. A large amount of witnesses gave evidence
of the inquest, including the all important Schmidt children. The

(50:10):
inquest lasted three days, concluding on the twenty second of
April Current and mister Looms was of the belief that
there must be somebody who could shed light on the murders.
He went on to say police had already conducted an
exhaustive investigation, although we still hoped that it could be
intensified if that was at all possible. There was no
doubt what happened in his mind, saying the cause of

(50:31):
death is very evident, a vicious, brutal murder. After the inquest,
police stated that they would be revisiting every page of
the police file in hopes of uncovering a vital piece
of information that may have been previously overlooked.

Speaker 2 (50:44):
Unfortunately, they didn't uncover anything.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Police still held the belief that somebody out there knew
something about the case, and that person was withholding information,
either because they were protecting someone who was close to them,
or they were in fear of that person they were protecting,
or they were too embarrassed or scared to come forward.
For whatever reason it was that they were at the
sand Hills that day. The six sketches of police had

(51:10):
released prior were made into full size, lifelike dummies, which
were displayed at the Sydney East to Show in nineteen
sixty seven. It was hoped that the large crowds that
poured through the Easter Show every year would be able
to put names to the faces, but no one could.
On the seventeenth of March sixty seven, another woman was
attacked that won the beach. Twenty eight year old Brenda
Galvan was some bathing on the beach with her three

(51:31):
children when she was attacked by an unknown male person.
I witness Trevor Bett's rushed her, Her aid and the attacker fled.
He was seen leaving in what was described as an
old white vehicle. Both the descriptions of Brenda and Trevor
fit the description of one of the six sketches that
had just been turned into life sized dummies at the
Easter show. Many were convinced that the Wander Beach killer
had just struck again. Despite an extensive investigation and search

(51:55):
for the attacker, he was never identified. Over the years,
there's been three names that have been thrown up in
the media as suspects for the Wonder Beach case. There's
no real evidences ever been released linking any of them
to the crime. It's all sort of circumstantial and maybe

(52:17):
in what ifs.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
The first is Alan Bassett.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
On Monday the thirteenth of June sixty six, Alan Raymond
Bassett from Yunandero, just south of Woollongong was charged for
the brutal murder of Caroline may Orphan. They met each
other at a dance on Friday night, the tenth of June,
and Carolyn and Allen left together. Later that night, Alan
tied and Carolyne up, raped her and killed her and

(52:44):
dumped her on the side of the road. He was
arrested a few days later and later convicted of murder.
He's thought to be a prime suspect for not only
the Wonder case, but the murders.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Of Wilhelmina Krueger and an ad Dallen Coher.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
One detective became that obsessed with Alan as being the
killer that he even visited him when he was retired,
trying to get him to confess. Alan Bassett was born
in England on the third of May nineteen forty five.
By all reports, he seemed like a quiet and shy,
normal sort of guy. He later told police and the

(53:22):
courts when he was being tried for the murder of
Carol and may Orphan, that he had no idea what
came over him and he didn't mean to killer. This
despite the fact that she was tied up, strangled to
hit over the head with a large rock. He asked
to be found guilty of niansporter. That was obviously rejected
and he was found guilty of murder.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
He was given life in prison.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Now this murder no knife was used, so that is
the glaring difference between the Wonder Beast murders and the
murders of missus Kruger and Miss Dallen Cohor. However, it
was still a very sad ambvicious attack. The savageness of
that attack and the fact that Alan was from Wollongong,

(54:07):
only down the road from the piccad Ellie Santa in
a short drive to Menouan Wander meant that he.

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Was obviously going to be looked at as a suspect.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
Investigations by police revealed that they thought Alan Bassett was
actually in Crenulo around the time of the Wander Beach murders.
The detective who became obsessed with Alan being responsible was
Detective Cess Johnson. He became so obsessed with the theory
that many thought that it was an unhealthy obsession. It

(54:38):
was even eventually recommended that he resigned from the force.
After his conviction, Alan Bassett was diagnosed as a schizophrenic
and he ended up serving his time in a psychiatric
hospital up in near Newcastle. So in his retirement, Detective
Johnson paid regular visits to Alan and was just basically

(54:58):
trying to get him to confess, trying to talk to
him about the unsolved murders. He was convinced that he
had his men. During this time, Alan presented Detective Johnson
with a gift. It's been described as a painting of
a bush scene. Detective Johnson at the time thought it
was quite ugly and he didn't think too much of

(55:19):
it and put it away for a few years. But
after a while he pulled it out and decided to
get it framed and put it up. It was at
this time he looked at the painting a little bit
more closely and whether or not it was actually there
or he was that obsessed he just wanted it to
be there and started to see things. He became convinced

(55:40):
that it was a confession to the four unsolved murders.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
He said the painting depicted a clue.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
That only the murderer would know. However, what this clue
is no one knows. It was never made public. Detective
Johnson he went to the press with his theory and
it got widespread media coverage.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
She even started write a.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Book about it, but unfortunately he was killed in an
accident just before the book was due to be.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Released, and it was never released.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
He convinced well known crime reporter at the time, Bill Jenkins,
that Allen was his man as well.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Some in the police force agreed with him a lot didn't.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
They thought he was sort of seeing things and his
unhealthy obsession had just spiraled out of control. One person
of significant importance that was convinced by Detective Johnson's theory
is Alan Bassett's father. He actually went on public record
to say that he believed Alan was responsible for the

(56:40):
Wonder Beast murders and that he should never be released.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
Despite those pleas from his father.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
In nineteen ninety five, Alan Bassett was released from custody
and placed back into the community after serving twenty nine
years in custody. He denied any involvement in any crime
other than that of the murder of Carolin Orphan for
which he was convicted. In the year two thousand, speculations
still circled around Allen's involvement, and he made a public
offer to provide a DNA sample to clear him from

(57:09):
the crime. It's unknown if police ever took him up
on that or if the advances in technology will one
day be able to clear or convict Allan of the crime.
There's another name that's thrown up as a prime suspect
for the Wander Beach murders, and that's Christopher Wilder. And
in nineteen eighty four, his death in the United States

(57:31):
spuck the interest of the New South Healest police and
actually caused him to re examine the Wonder case to
study any links that he may have had with Wonder.
And the reason for that is because he was a
serial killer. He was also known as the Beauty Queen killer.
He just killed eight women, suspected of killing more through
the US who was on the top ten FBI and
most wanted when he was killed in.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
A confrontation with the police.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
And the reason New South Wales police were looking at
him and any links to Wander is because he was
born in Sydney and that's where he was living at
the time of Wander. So he was born in nineteen
forty five and he had his first major running with
the law as a seventeen year old when he was
charged for the gang rape of a woman at a
Sydney beach. He pled down to a lesser charge and
got off with probation and electric shock therapy.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
In nineteen sixty eight, he married and that lasted.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
All of a week before his wife left him, claiming
sexual and physical abuse. In nineteen sixty nine, he lured
a young nineteen year old nursing student into his car
at Manley Beach and convinced her to pose nude for
a few photos.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
When that was done, he.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Tried to force her to have sex with him, and
when she refused, he threatened to blackmail her boss with
the photos. She managed to get away and call police,
but she refused to testify against him.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Later that year, he moved to the United States.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
His father was from the US and that's how he
was able to move over there. He moved to Florida,
and it didn't take long for him to find some
significant wealth over there due to booming construction and real
estate industries. In nineteen seventy one, at his first run
in with the law over there, caught trying to entice
women to pose for nude photographs, as he'd done before.

(59:09):
The next year, he was actually arrested for trying to
force a sixteen year old girl to have sex with him,
but he was acquitted.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Of that charge.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
A few years after that, posing as a photographer while
the lured a school girl out of a.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Shopping mall and he drugged her and raped her.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
Somehow managed to plea bug in that one down and
again was given probation and therapy. In nineteen eighty two,
he came back to Australia to visit his parents, and
on that visit he abducted two fifteen year old girls,
tied them up, and forced them to pose for nude photographs.
He was arrested the next day and his parents managed

(59:46):
to post a large amount of bail for him. I
think it was somewhere around three hundred thousand dollars. Incredibly,
he was allowed to leave Australia until his trial so
he could go back to the US for work. Long
after that, in nineteen eighty four, while still awaiting trial
back in Australia for the abduction charge, he commenced his
murderous rampage across nine different states of America, kidnapping a

(01:00:09):
dozen women. Some were lucky enough to get away, but
he murdered eight and he's actually.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Suspected in more than that. His ma was de posed as.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
A photographer, comment about how beautiful a girl was, and
in twice her out with him, convincing her that he'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
Able to get her into modeling.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
So it seems pretty obvious to many were Christopher Waller
is a prime suspect for Wonder. He was nineteen at
the time, living in Sydney, and he turned out to
be a serial killer. The one problem being his timeline
of crimes doesn't seem to match up with Wonder. He
started off with a string of sexual offenses and trying
to get girls post nude before.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
He committed his first known murder in nineteen eighty.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Four, nineteen years after the one the case, but that
is if his first murder was actually in nineteen eighty four.
Wilder is suspected of being involved in the abduction and
suspected murder of several women, both in the United States
and Australia well before eighty four. Some remain convinced that
Walder is the man for Wander. Although he was slightly

(01:01:14):
older than the surfeteen wolfgang described, his age is still
in the ballpark, and the actual physical description itself would
have matched Wilder at the time.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
When he was killed. It was in a confrontation with
the police.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
He'd just had a physical struggle with one officer who
was wounded, and then Wilder was shot not long after that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:32):
It's unknown if he.

Speaker 1 (01:01:33):
Was shot as a result of the struggle or if
he turned the gun on himself, which most people suspect
is what happened. New South Wales police requested a blood
sample after his death, and advances in technology may yet
prove if he was or wasn't involved, but at the
moment it's very much circumstantial.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
With no real evidence at all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
Now, if you do some reading on the Wonder case,
there is one name that appears in bright flashing lights
as being the prime suspect. He's also been described as
Australia's Hannibal Lecter, which tells you.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Probably all you need to know about him.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
He's considered by many to be not only the prime
suspect and that won the case, but also a number
of other unsolved child murders and child disappearances from the
late sixties. That includes the disappearance of the three Bomont
children from Adelaide on the twenty sixth of January sixty sixth,
the murder of Alan Redston on the twenty seventh of
September sixty sixth in Canberra, the murder of Simon Brook

(01:02:27):
on the eighteenth of May sixty eight in Glebe, Sydney,
and the disappearance of Linda Steell on the tenth of
August sixty eight from Saint Kilda in Victoria.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
He's never been.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Charged for any of these crimes, but he certainly has
been questioned about them. He's never made any admissions, but
at the same time he hasn't exactly denied involvement either.
So who is Derreck Percy. He was born in Stratfield, Sydney,
on the fifteenth of September nineteen forty eight. In nineteen
fifty sixteen his family moved down to Victoria, where they

(01:02:58):
stayed in a few different places, and in sixty one
they moved to me On Beauty in the northeast of Victoria.
Derek was always known as a little bit different, bit
of a loner, a little hard to get to know,
and in nineteen sixty four in the Mount Beauty area,
women's underwear started to disappear off clotheslines and even from inside.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Some of the houses.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
The whispers around town where that Derek was responsible, but
it was never proven.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
That is until later on that year, in the summer
of sixty four.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
When Till of his schoolmates made their way down to
a popular local swimming hole. Along the way, they saw
something that was so twisted that no one believed their story.
Everyone thought they were just making it up. That is
until a few years later. What they saw was Derek
walking around in a woman's petticoat. Derek didn't see them,

(01:03:50):
and they didn't call out. Instead, they decided to hide
and try and work out what the hell who was doing.
What they saw next was Derek pull out a knife
and he started stabbing a pair of women's underpants that he.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Had with him.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Once he was done there, he defecated in the river
and then walked off. The kids, of course, questioned Derek
about it, but he denied it, and the other kids
and other people in the town didn't really believe the story.
They knew Derek was a bit different, but that behavior
seemed to be quite a stretch. It was around this
time that Derek started keeping journals outlining sexual references towards children,

(01:04:25):
So this time the beginnings of an extremely dark twisted
path started for Derek. In nineteen sixty six, they moved
to Kenkoba in New South Wales, just north of the
Victorian border. Derek indecently assaulted two young girls while living here.
There were two sisters and they lived next door to

(01:04:47):
the Percy family.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
The youngest was six.

Speaker 1 (01:04:50):
Derek luled them into a caravan and got them to
take their pants off. Percy was actually caught out and
for some reason the police weren't notified. Instead, the girls
farther left it to Derek's father to discipline him. Derek's
diary and sheries continued to get darker and increasingly violent.
One diary entry made specific mention of a plan to
kidnap two girls and take them to a secluded place.

(01:05:13):
He joined the Navy on the twenty fifth of November
nineteen sixty seven, and it was while he was in
the Navy he was arrested for the horrific murder of
twelve year old Yvonne Tuy. Yvonne and her friend Shane,
who was aged eleven, decided to go for a walk,
and during this walk they got separated. Derek pounced on Yvonne.
He pulled out a knife and held her by a

(01:05:35):
knife point. Shane made his way back and discovered what
was going on. He produced the tomahawk that he was
carrying the chop firewood, and he managed to escape. And
it was his description of Derek and Derek's vehicle maybe
seen him drive off in that was crucial and allow
police to arrest Derek only a few hours after the abduction.

(01:05:56):
He was arrested at nearby Flinder's Naval depot, where he
was based at the time, listening to a radio reporter
of Yvonne's disappearance, trying to wash her blood out of
his clothes. Unfortunately, when they caught up with Derek, Yevonn
was already dead. Search of his belongings revealed sickening journal
entries and drawings depicting the rape, torture and murder of children.

(01:06:17):
He even had an entry detailing his desire to kidnap
a young boy and girl, just as he had done
or tried to do with Shane a few hours before.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
The murder was one of the worst.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
That detectives had seen, if not they worse, and the
facts are too horrible to go about in detail, but
in short yvon was strangled mutilated and sexually assaulted. Derek
stood trial on the second of April nineteen seventy at
the Melbourne Supreme Court. After a six day trial, he
was found not guilty by reasons of insanity, but he
was ordered to be kept in custody at the Governor's Leisure,

(01:06:50):
which means indefinitely. Unfortunately, that's where he remained until he
died in twenty thirteen. Despite being suspected of many other crimes,
the murder of Yvontou is the crime the only crime
that he was ever charge with. During his incarceration, many
more drawings, diary and she's were found outlining his sick fantasies.

(01:07:11):
One rape, torture, murder journal was so organized that he
even had.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
An index for it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
Names weren't even invented yet for the type of sickness
and depravity that was Derek Percy. He has since been
described as a sadistic pedophile with a morbid and sexual
attraction to fecal matter, with killing being the ultimate sexual
act for him. Sounds like a good suspect for the
Wonder Beach murders, But to sum it up quickly, I
think it's likely Derek Percy was responsible for some of

(01:07:38):
the crimes he suspected of, but not involved in others.
The main question for the day is, though, was Derek
Percy involved in the Wonder Beach murders. There's no clear
cut answer the answers. Maybe there's no clear evidence linking
him to Wander. It's all very much circumstantial, and some
of those circumstances of people rely on ah the fact
that the Percy feely had keen interest in sailing, and

(01:08:02):
in actual fact, in January nineteen sixty five, at the
time I Wander, the National Moth Class Regatta was being
held at Botany Bay Yacht Club, which is not too
far away from Wonder at all, and this is the
very class of sailing that the Percies were interested in.
It's suspected that it's never been able to be proven
that the Percy family were in Sydney for that regatta. Now,

(01:08:23):
Derek would have been sixteen at the time, and on
top of that, if they were in Sydney, they likely
would have been staying at Derek's grandmother's place in Dennistone,
which is the neighboring suburb to West Ryde. Meaning to
get to the beach on train, he would have been
traveling the exact same train line as Marian and Christine. Now,

(01:08:44):
remember Marian and Christine were approached by a teenage male
on the train between Ryde and Redfern, and many suspect
that that was Derek, although there's not much to go
on other than that it was a teenage boy and
that he was probably on the same train line, if
he was maybe in Sydney, maybe staying at his grandmother's house.
You see, it's there's nothing concrete. Also, Derek doesn't master

(01:09:10):
Surphy Team description that Wolfgang provided, but some claim that
he was a dead ringer for one of the six
sketches that was released later on by police and turned
into life sized dummies. It was also revealed that years later,
when several of Derek's journals were found, he had a
newspaper article about the Wanda Beach murders with them scene
comments written on it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Now that's been taken away out of context.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
The article was actually a Playboy article titled Wicked Wander
and it had nothing to do with the Wonder Beach murders.
So there's no director evidence linking Percy to the crime.
Some believe he's guilty, Some believe he isn't, but if
he was involved, he took his secret to the grave.
Detectives visited him on his deathbed several times, I think,

(01:09:55):
trying to question him about not only Wonder but the
other murders, but he gave nothing away. Maybe advancement in
DNA technology will be able to prove if Percy is
in fact the Wonder Beach killer.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
In twenty twelve, there was.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
A major breakthrough in the investigation and that was due
to DNA technology. Police retested the clothing worn by Christina
Marianne and they were in luck. They found a small
spot of blood and that blood belongs to a male. Unfortunately,
the profile is too weak that they can't test any further.
But it's hoped that with further advances in technology that

(01:10:33):
one day and some say that could be within five years,
that it is hoped a full DNA profile will be
obtained from that blood spot and the one the case
will finally be solved. As for the semen sample they
found back at the time of the murders, the problem
was it was nineteen sixty five and no one had
heard of DNA testing wasn't heard of for many years

(01:10:56):
after police wouldn't have been able to imagine what was
possible with today's technology, and unfortunately this may have led
to less than ideal evidence he handling, because at some
point over the last fifty one years, that Seaman sample
has been lost. It's unknown what the status of the
broken piece of knife blade was that they found back

(01:11:17):
at the crime scene. They couldn't test it any further
back then, but with advances in DNA technology, maybe they
can today, like the Seaman sample that may have been
lost to So it was Alan Bassett, Chris Wilder, Rod
Derek Percy responsible for the Wonder Beach murders, or is
someone else responsible?

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Maybe his name has already been given to police.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
And it's buried somewhere amongst those thousands upon thousands of
pages upon pages of that is the police file. Maybe
a vital piece of evidence or information was lost in
the thousands of phone calls that police received. Maybe it's
someone completely unknown who's managed to avoid.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Detection all these years. Maybe it was two people.

Speaker 1 (01:12:03):
Is there someone still out there who was up on
the beach that day in the sand Hills who saw
something he's too scared to come.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Forward even to today. Police think that there is.

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Certainly there's been a number of people described who were
at the beach that day who were never identified and
who never came forward. It was a different time back then.
Homosexuality was still illegal. It was actually considered to be
a psychiatric disorder back then, so society clearly held a
very dim view of it, just as a dim view
would have been held of the nudists and you know,

(01:12:37):
some of the other unscrupulous characters that might have been
in the sand hills that day. But times have changed,
and we can only hope that if someone did see
or hear something, that they.

Speaker 2 (01:12:47):
Are still alive and they may still yet come.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
Forward, although it's probably a very dim hope at this
point in time.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
With those people what they saw or heard, they might
even think that it was in significant.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
Wouldn't help in the investigation, so there's no use coming
forward and risking exposure. But it could be the vital
piece of missing information that's needed to solve the case
and bring closure to the families of Christine and Marianne.
The case is still as frightening today as it would
have been back then and affected a great deal of people. Obviously,
the families that goes without saying, but even the detectives,

(01:13:22):
the police that were close to the investigation, it really
affected a lot of them. Now a lot of people
close to the case have passed on, they're no longer
with us. But the case still remains unsolved, and let's
just hope that it's solved one day, whether it be
a DNA breakthrough or some vital piece of information that

(01:13:44):
comes forward or something.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Until then, May Mary and Christine rest in peace.