Found dead 28 August 1970
Mother: Thelma Mason Perfect
Father/parent: William Daniel Mackay∼Five year old Susan and seven year old Judith MacKay disappeared on the morning of Wednesday, 26 August 1970 from a school bus stop 660 feet from their home in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale less than 10 minutes after leaving home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Brown
A search for the missing girls was mounted after they failed to return home after school and continued until the girls bodies were found on Friday in the dry bed of Antill Creek, 16 mi south-west of Townsville.
Susan was found first and a trail of footprints from her body led searchers 230 ft to where Judith's body lay. It was speculated that Judith had fled while Susan was being killed and had then been run down.
A post-mortem revealed that Susan had been raped, strangled and stabbed three times in the chest, possibly after death. Judith had also been raped and stabbed three times in the chest but cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation by sand.
Their school uniforms, straw hats and shoes were beside them, with each shoe containing a neatly folded sock while their uniforms were folded neatly inside their schoolbags.
The community was outraged with one policeman stating that he wouldn't go home until they caught the killer. The officer slept at the Townsville police station while his wife brought him food and clean clothing. He died of a heart attack two weeks later.
Police initially declined to post a reward but after interviewing more than 6,000 men who lived in the area and no progress in the investigation, posted a reward of $10,000 (2011: $101,500) with an offer of a pardon for any accomplice who came forward.
One witness saw the girls talking to a man in a car at the bus stop at 8:10am.
Several witnesses reported the girls being driven around in a car.
Two witnesses later reported seeing a man walking towards a car from the direction of the murder scene around 1pm that day. Just after 11am a car pulled into a service station at Ayr, 53 mi south of Townsville and the driver bought $3 (around 25 litre/ 5 gll) of petrol.
The two girls were in the car and the station attendant, Jean Thwaite, recalled the younger girl saying "Are we there yet?" followed by the older girl asking the driver, "When are you taking us to mummy? You promised to take us to mummy." Not long after, Neil Lunney, a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spoke to a driver who had cut him off. Lunney stated that he saw two girls in Aitkenvale school uniforms in the vehicle and that the driver appeared to be trying to avoid being seen.
The evidence given by the station attendant and Lunney were both rejected as unreliable as, in contrast to all the other witnesses who identified the car as "looking like a Holden", they had both identified the car as a Vauxhall and neither were questioned "in depth"
Mother: Thelma Mason Perfect
Father/parent: William Daniel Mackay∼Five year old Susan and seven year old Judith MacKay disappeared on the morning of Wednesday, 26 August 1970 from a school bus stop 660 feet from their home in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale less than 10 minutes after leaving home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Brown
A search for the missing girls was mounted after they failed to return home after school and continued until the girls bodies were found on Friday in the dry bed of Antill Creek, 16 mi south-west of Townsville.
Susan was found first and a trail of footprints from her body led searchers 230 ft to where Judith's body lay. It was speculated that Judith had fled while Susan was being killed and had then been run down.
A post-mortem revealed that Susan had been raped, strangled and stabbed three times in the chest, possibly after death. Judith had also been raped and stabbed three times in the chest but cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation by sand.
Their school uniforms, straw hats and shoes were beside them, with each shoe containing a neatly folded sock while their uniforms were folded neatly inside their schoolbags.
The community was outraged with one policeman stating that he wouldn't go home until they caught the killer. The officer slept at the Townsville police station while his wife brought him food and clean clothing. He died of a heart attack two weeks later.
Police initially declined to post a reward but after interviewing more than 6,000 men who lived in the area and no progress in the investigation, posted a reward of $10,000 (2011: $101,500) with an offer of a pardon for any accomplice who came forward.
One witness saw the girls talking to a man in a car at the bus stop at 8:10am.
Several witnesses reported the girls being driven around in a car.
Two witnesses later reported seeing a man walking towards a car from the direction of the murder scene around 1pm that day. Just after 11am a car pulled into a service station at Ayr, 53 mi south of Townsville and the driver bought $3 (around 25 litre/ 5 gll) of petrol.
The two girls were in the car and the station attendant, Jean Thwaite, recalled the younger girl saying "Are we there yet?" followed by the older girl asking the driver, "When are you taking us to mummy? You promised to take us to mummy." Not long after, Neil Lunney, a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spoke to a driver who had cut him off. Lunney stated that he saw two girls in Aitkenvale school uniforms in the vehicle and that the driver appeared to be trying to avoid being seen.
The evidence given by the station attendant and Lunney were both rejected as unreliable as, in contrast to all the other witnesses who identified the car as "looking like a Holden", they had both identified the car as a Vauxhall and neither were questioned "in depth"
Found dead 28 August 1970
Mother: Thelma Mason Perfect
Father/parent: William Daniel Mackay∼Five year old Susan and seven year old Judith MacKay disappeared on the morning of Wednesday, 26 August 1970 from a school bus stop 660 feet from their home in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale less than 10 minutes after leaving home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Brown
A search for the missing girls was mounted after they failed to return home after school and continued until the girls bodies were found on Friday in the dry bed of Antill Creek, 16 mi south-west of Townsville.
Susan was found first and a trail of footprints from her body led searchers 230 ft to where Judith's body lay. It was speculated that Judith had fled while Susan was being killed and had then been run down.
A post-mortem revealed that Susan had been raped, strangled and stabbed three times in the chest, possibly after death. Judith had also been raped and stabbed three times in the chest but cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation by sand.
Their school uniforms, straw hats and shoes were beside them, with each shoe containing a neatly folded sock while their uniforms were folded neatly inside their schoolbags.
The community was outraged with one policeman stating that he wouldn't go home until they caught the killer. The officer slept at the Townsville police station while his wife brought him food and clean clothing. He died of a heart attack two weeks later.
Police initially declined to post a reward but after interviewing more than 6,000 men who lived in the area and no progress in the investigation, posted a reward of $10,000 (2011: $101,500) with an offer of a pardon for any accomplice who came forward.
One witness saw the girls talking to a man in a car at the bus stop at 8:10am.
Several witnesses reported the girls being driven around in a car.
Two witnesses later reported seeing a man walking towards a car from the direction of the murder scene around 1pm that day. Just after 11am a car pulled into a service station at Ayr, 53 mi south of Townsville and the driver bought $3 (around 25 litre/ 5 gll) of petrol.
The two girls were in the car and the station attendant, Jean Thwaite, recalled the younger girl saying "Are we there yet?" followed by the older girl asking the driver, "When are you taking us to mummy? You promised to take us to mummy." Not long after, Neil Lunney, a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spoke to a driver who had cut him off. Lunney stated that he saw two girls in Aitkenvale school uniforms in the vehicle and that the driver appeared to be trying to avoid being seen.
The evidence given by the station attendant and Lunney were both rejected as unreliable as, in contrast to all the other witnesses who identified the car as "looking like a Holden", they had both identified the car as a Vauxhall and neither were questioned "in depth"
Mother: Thelma Mason Perfect
Father/parent: William Daniel Mackay∼Five year old Susan and seven year old Judith MacKay disappeared on the morning of Wednesday, 26 August 1970 from a school bus stop 660 feet from their home in the Townsville suburb of Aitkenvale less than 10 minutes after leaving home.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Brown
A search for the missing girls was mounted after they failed to return home after school and continued until the girls bodies were found on Friday in the dry bed of Antill Creek, 16 mi south-west of Townsville.
Susan was found first and a trail of footprints from her body led searchers 230 ft to where Judith's body lay. It was speculated that Judith had fled while Susan was being killed and had then been run down.
A post-mortem revealed that Susan had been raped, strangled and stabbed three times in the chest, possibly after death. Judith had also been raped and stabbed three times in the chest but cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation by sand.
Their school uniforms, straw hats and shoes were beside them, with each shoe containing a neatly folded sock while their uniforms were folded neatly inside their schoolbags.
The community was outraged with one policeman stating that he wouldn't go home until they caught the killer. The officer slept at the Townsville police station while his wife brought him food and clean clothing. He died of a heart attack two weeks later.
Police initially declined to post a reward but after interviewing more than 6,000 men who lived in the area and no progress in the investigation, posted a reward of $10,000 (2011: $101,500) with an offer of a pardon for any accomplice who came forward.
One witness saw the girls talking to a man in a car at the bus stop at 8:10am.
Several witnesses reported the girls being driven around in a car.
Two witnesses later reported seeing a man walking towards a car from the direction of the murder scene around 1pm that day. Just after 11am a car pulled into a service station at Ayr, 53 mi south of Townsville and the driver bought $3 (around 25 litre/ 5 gll) of petrol.
The two girls were in the car and the station attendant, Jean Thwaite, recalled the younger girl saying "Are we there yet?" followed by the older girl asking the driver, "When are you taking us to mummy? You promised to take us to mummy." Not long after, Neil Lunney, a soldier recently returned from Vietnam, spoke to a driver who had cut him off. Lunney stated that he saw two girls in Aitkenvale school uniforms in the vehicle and that the driver appeared to be trying to avoid being seen.
The evidence given by the station attendant and Lunney were both rejected as unreliable as, in contrast to all the other witnesses who identified the car as "looking like a Holden", they had both identified the car as a Vauxhall and neither were questioned "in depth"
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