REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Wednesday May 3, 1989

IT was the moment the Gold Coast and Tweed Heads feared: had one of the region’s most infamous killers returned?

By 1989 the case of the balaclava killer-rapist had been cold for nearly nine years after a reign of terror that lasted from late 1979 until late 1980 when the attacks simply stopped.

But the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in Brisbane sparked a police check of old files after similarities to the Coast case.

NSW Assistant Commissioner Eric Strong led the original 1980 investigation, which was one of the largest of its kind in Australia’s history to that point and urged for a reinvestigation.

He told the Gold Coast Bulletin there were “unique” similarities between the Brisbane case and the balaclava killer-rapist. The girl targeted in Brisbane was stabbed several times by the man who fled after she screamed.

She later told police her attacker had a strange grease like smell. Gold Coast police believe the balaclava killer rapist was as young as 17 during the original crime spree. He was not a smoker or drinker and was described as having a “workshop-like smell”.

He was believed to have been responsible for the murder of English migrant Jeffery Parkinson, 33, on February 2, 1980.

The man offended just once more in October 1980 before the trail went cold.

Nearly 40 years later, the killer has never been found.

Police and other legal figures believe the unidentified killer was arrested and imprisoned for unrelated crimes and has since died.