Unsolved-murder of
MacKay sisters Judith, 7,
and Susan, 5, in 1970.
SA Police are working to
establish possible links between the murders of two
Townsville schoolgirls and
the abduction of five Adelaide children.
They are co-operating with
Queensland colleagues and
the Canberra Bureau of Crime
intelligence, and have established a special file with their
Crime Stoppers office to assess
calls from the public.
Major Crime Task Force
chief, Supt Paul Schramm,
confirmed yesterday a joint inquiry was under way into any
possible connections between
the 1966 abductions of Jane,
Anna and Grant Beaumont,
the 1973 disappearance of
Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste
Gordon and the arrest of
Arthur Brown, 86.
Brown was arrested in
Townsville two weeks ago
for the alleged murder of
MacKay sisters Judith, 7,
and Susan, 5, in 1970.
The arrest followed
statements to police by
his grand-daughters.
He has denied the
murders.
It was a picture of
Brown alongside
police sketches of the man
seen in the Beaumont and
Gordon-Ratcliffe cases that
prompted media attention and
revived SA police interest in
the cases.
Supt Schramm told interstate media: "We are taking it
seriously and we are seeing if
there is any connection. We
have analysts working very
closely together to try and
piece together the past 30
years.
Since the Queensland arrest,
police have opened a new file
in its Crime Stoppers office
and reports a "significant"
number of contacts from the
public volunteering information.
Mr Schramm said the number of calls to Crime Stoppers
indicated an on-going interest
in the two SA abduction cases.
"We are quite happy for the
public to volunteer useful information and will look closely
at what comes in."
Adelaide Advertiser 13-12-1998
Peter Haran
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Sketch of suspect in abduction cases
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