Now it’s time to let us bury our family
As Vincent O’Dempsey is convicted of killing the McCulkins, relatives plead for help to find their bodies
FORTY-THREE years is a long time to learn who killed your family, but the relatives of Barbara, Vicki and Leanne McCulkin will not know peace until they can bury their loved ones.
Shortly after watching a jury convict Vincent O’Dempsey over the 1974 McCulkin murders, Brian Ogden made an impassioned plea to anyone who might know the whereabouts of the bodies of his aunt and cousins.
“We still need information as to the location of our loved ones’ remains,” Mr Ogden said as Barbara’s brother Graham Ogden wiped away tears.
“We ask that if anyone has information that they come forward.”
O’Dempsey’s triple murder conviction followed the November trial of his co-accused Gary Reginald “Shorty” Dubois. In November, Dubois, 69, was convicted of the manslaughter of Barbara, 34, and the rapes and murders of Vicki, 13, and her 11-year-old sister Leanne.
Both men were convicted of deprivation of liberty, but two rape charges against O’Dempsey, 78, were dropped before his trial began on May 2. Both juries heard the men, who were friends of the family, lured the McCulkins away from their home on the evening of January 16, 1974 – shortly after the girls attended a neighbour’s 10th birthday party.
While the mother and her children went willingly, at some point on the drive O’Dempsey ordered Dubois to tie them up. The men took their captives to an unknown secluded bush area where the girls were raped and murdered, after hearing O’Dempsey strangle their mother. O’Dempsey
and Dubois were not seen in Brisbane until about noon the following day.
Queensland Cold Case Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Mick Dowie would not rule out the possibility the family was buried in the Warwick region.
It’s been a long four decades for the McCulkin and Ogden families who have put up with “endless rumours, victim blaming, mistruths and time-wasters” as Queenslanders speculated about one of Australia’s most enduring cold mysteries. Mr Ogden said his family never gave up hope that the killers would be brought to justice.
“Even though the case grew cold in the 1980s, our father never stopped trying to find out what happened to them on that night,” he said.
“At different times over the years, often on the anniversary of their disappearance, dad would contact the police to inquire about any progression in the investigation. This often impacted on his overwhelming frustration, sadness and grief for his missing sister and nieces.”
The Ogdens sat through both trials, watching as key Crown witnesses explained how O’Dempsey and Dubois confessed to killing the McCulkins.
Crown prosecutor David Meredith told the juries a suspected connection between the Torino and Whiskey Au Go Go fires in 1973 might have provided a motive for Dubois and O’Dempsey to keep Barbara McCulkin quiet.
The Crown case hinged around several key points: Vicki and Leanne’s neighbourhood friends saw men called Vince and Shorty at the McCulkin home hours
❝notch You need a on your gun. When I was your age I had several notches on my gun.
— Vincent O’Dempsey
before they disappeared; O’Dempsey and Dubois skipped town as soon as Robert William “Billy” McCulkin started looking for his estranged wife and their children and asking questions about their role in the disappearance; and that both men confessed their roles in the killings to a range of unconnected people.
Small-time crook Peter Hall was one of the most
compelling witnesses at the trial of Dubois. He told how Fraser Coast man Dubois described listening to “gurgling” sounds coming from Barbara as O’Dempsey strangled her some distance from her terrified daughters.
“After the sound stopped he (O’Dempsey) came down and proceeded to rape one of the girls,” Mr Hall told the court.
He testified that O’Dempsey told Dubois to “rape the other one, which he had trouble doing”.
“He (Dubois) said he didn’t feel real good but he eventually complied,” the witness said. After that, O’Dempsey killed one (of the sisters) and asked him to kill the other. He said he couldn’t do it so O’Dempsey killed the other (girl).”
The men waited until dawn, then buried the family.
Three independent witnesses testified in O’Dempsey’s trial that he also confessed to killing the family, but that he blamed Dubois for the rapes.
O’Dempsey’s former lover Kerri Scully said while they were in bed reading a book O’Dempsey featured in, he boasted to her about the killings.
“(He said) I’m good for it but they’ll never get me for it,” Ms Scully said.
Warren McDonald
claimed he was telling the truth when he alleged O’Dempsey revealed he had “several notches on his belt”.
“He (O’Dempsey) said ‘You need a notch on your gun. When I was your age I had several notches on my gun, you need a kill’,” Mr McDonald told the jury.
“He said he killed the McCulkins and Shorty was nothing but a rapist.
Defence barrister Tony Glynn told the jury none of the O’Dempsey confession witnesses could be trusted.
Mr Glynn also put the blame for the murders on Mr McCulkin, who was known to violently abuse Barbara.
Dubois and O’Dempsey will be sentenced next week.