Let us mourn them
THE McCulkin family’s surviving relatives are pleading for help to find the murder victims’ bodies after a chapter in their 43- year battle for justice closed yesterday with the conviction of Vincent O’Dempsey.
O’Dempsey, a 78- year- old who was once referred to as the “Angel of Death”, will likely die in jail after a Brisbane Supreme Court jury took little more than a day to find him guilty of murdering Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters in January, 1974.
The verdict came six months after Garry Dubois was found guilty of raping and murdering Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, and the manslaughter of Barbara, 34.
The family was brutally murdered because Mrs McCulkin claimed to have knowledge of the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing – which killed 15 people – and the men feared being linked to the massacre due to their involvement in torching another nightclub.
After a hard- fought quest for justice in one of Queensland’s oldest cold cases, the victims’ family is now focused on finding their bodies to give them a proper burial.
“Although today’s outcome has been the best we could have hoped for, we still need information as to the location of our loved ones’ remains,” Mrs McCulkin’s nephew, Brian Ogden, said outside court yesterday.
“We ask that if anyone has such information that they come forward and contact the police.”
A pre- trial hearing earlier this year heard O’Dempsey recently told a prison informant “historical places were good places to hide a body because they’d never dig them up”. It emerged during 70year- old Dubois’ trial that the family were buried in bush graves at dawn where they were killed, thought to be somewhere outside Warwick.
But one of the lead investigators in the case, detective Inspector Mick Dowie, said there was still no firm indication where the remains were located.
The Queensland Government introduced a “no body, no parole” Bill in Parliament this week, which could apply to O’Dempsey and Dubois if passed.
But O’Dempsey will be almost 100 years old before he is eligible for parole on a life sentence, while Dubois will be about 90.
O’Dempsey, a career criminal who has dabbled in alpaca farming, did not visibly react when the 12- person jury handed down the verdicts yesterday afternoon following the month- long trial.
O’Dempsey had pleaded not guilty to all murder charges and a count of deprivation of liberty, while rape charges against him were dropped late last year.
Dubois has lodged an appeal of his convictions and O’Dempsey’s legal team has indicated he may do the same.