Truro murders
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The Truro murders was the name given to the findings of the remains of seven young women in bushland near the town of Truro, South Australia in 1976 - 1977.
On April 25, 1978, William Thomas (a former VFL footballer) found what he thought was the bone from the leg of a cow whilst mushrooming in bushland near Truro. Upon closer inspection he noted the bone had a shoe attached and inside the shoe was human skin and painted toenails. Clothes, blood, and more bones were found nearby. The dead woman was later identified to be Veronica Knight, an 18 year old girl who vanished from an Adelaide street.
Later, other bushwalkers discovered the skeletal remains of 16 year old Sylvia Pittman, about 1 km from where Veronica's remains had been located.
Serial killing was a new phenomenon in Australia at the time, and police faced a difficult task of piecing together evidence. There was the strong suggestion of a link between the two dead women found in the Truro bushland, and other young women reported missing in the area.
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[edit] The accused
Christopher Worrell, described as young, charismatic and psychosociopathic, and James Miller, a 40 year old labourer, described as a drifter and totally dependent on Worrell for support, were accused of the murders.
Worrell and a friend were killed in a car accident on February 19, 1977, thus ending the murders, although Miller survived the car accident. It has been suggested that, had Worrell not been killed, the Truro murders may have become a much more devastating killing spree.
Miller suffered depression and became homeless after Worrell's death. Miller's state of mind gave police a breakthrough when he inadvertently told a woman about Worrell's fascination with thrill killing. She later collected a AUD$40,000 reward after providing information to police leading to Miller's arrest and capture.
Miller stood trial for the murders, and was found guilty of six of the seven murders. Interestingly, he was convicted of murder despite having never touched a victim. The testimony at his trial revealed a terrifying story. Miller and Worrell would regularly cruise the local streets, looking for women that Worrell could have sex with. Worrell was charismatic and good-looking, and this was a time of sexual revolution in Australia, so Worrell regularly "picked up" local girls. Miller would drive Worrell and the woman to a secluded place, where Worrell would have sex with the woman while Miller waited outside the car. Then Miller would drive them back into town.
Miller described how the "pick-ups" became more and more terrifying. First, Worrell started occasionally raping the women. Then he started murdering them. Miller was unaware that murder would occur prior to it happening - he stated that it only happened some times and not others. It appeared that as the violence increased, Miller became increasingly scared of Worrell.
Legally, Miller argued that he never engaged in any murders directly, nor did he explicitly agree prior to going out cruising for women that he would support Worrell in the murders. Nevertheless, he was found guilty of murder because he was found to be a part of a joint criminal enterprise. This created legal difficulties over the definition of a joint criminal enterprise in future, but these have largely been resolved on the basis that this was a special, and particularly horrifying, case.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- It's a long way to Truro, by Anne-Marie Mykyta, mother of victim Juliet Mykyta. McPhee Gribble, Melbourne (1982).
- Murder in Tandem: When Two People Kill. Prof Paul Wilson (with J. Simmonds) Harper Collins, Sydney (2000) (Chapter 3: The truro murders: Worrell and Miller)
 Crime in Australia |
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| Regional crime: | Timeline | Melbourne | Northern Territory | Western Australia | Sydney | |
| Australian law: | Courts | Criminal law | Law enforcement | |
| Australian people: | Bushrangers | Convicts | Criminals | Murderers | Prisoners | |
| Australian prisons: | ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA | |
| International: | Crime by country | |
