Abuser’s reign of evil
Up to 25 killings
A WOMAN has come forward claiming a man who abused her as a child and “held a gun to her head” could be responsible for as many as 25 Australian cold cases.
Amanda*, who has kept quiet for 40 years fearing “repercussions”, broke her silence to News Corp’s The Lost Ones podcast.
Speaking from overseas, where she moved to start a new life, she said she had a theory that her Tasmanian abuser ran rampant for decades in that state and elsewhere on the mainland.
“Five (killings) minimum … and upwards to 20, 25,” she said in a bombshell episode six.
Amanda cited four specific cases which the man, who is in jail for a separate homicide, could have been involved in:
• The murder of 20-yearold Italian backpacker Victoria Cafasso in 1995 on Tasmania’s east coast;
• The disappearance of 26year-old German backpacker Nancy Grunwaldt in 1993, also on Tasmania’s east coast;
• The disappearance of 14year-old Eve Askew, who had run away from her family in Tasmania in 1991, after being grounded for smoking; and
• The disappearance of nine-year-old Craig Ewen Taylor from his family’s beach shack in 1993.
Amanda said her sole motivation for going public was to bring closure to grieving families.
“I don’t like raising conjecture. I’m very aware that the families of these people are still alive and it’s really upsetting to consider what may have happened to them,” Amanda said.
“But I just feel that there needs to be a proper look at any child or vulnerable adult that’s disappeared and look at them with a fresh set of eyes in a cohesive way to see whether there could be links between any of these people.
“The only reason I’m coming forward now, and the absolutely only reason – and I want to make so clear – is the chance to give the other families some form of closure. That’s my only motivation.”
Amanda said her abuse started at age five and the abuse moved quickly from kissing and touching to “more intimate stuff”.
One day her attacker shoved her in a car, drove her to scrubby bushland and “threatened to kill” her as he held a gun to her head.
“He said he’d go on to kill people and make them disappear and that they would kill people who wouldn’t be missed in a hurry, like backpackers and other children, and that it would all be my fault and it would be on my conscience.”
That day, her life was spared, but not the dog that he had brought with them. He shot it in front of her.
“I just felt very frightened. I was worried about the repercussions so I stayed silent,” she said.
Her attacker also travelled interstate, so she fears his evil streak was not confined to Tasmania.
The mayor of Break O’day, in Tasmania’s north east, Mick Tucker previously told News Corp that speculations of a serial killer in Tasmania during the 1990s were unhelpful. He also dismissed suggestions the two east coast cases could be linked.
“When we had such a horrendous attack as we had, unfortunately it’s human nature to put two and two things together, come up with five, but all that did was drive more fear into our community,” he said.
Tasmania Police said it was not able to comment whether someone was “on the radar” or subject to an investigation. “Police investigations are never closed until those responsible are brought to justice.”
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or crimestoppertas.com.au
* Name changed.