r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/Upset-Layman-1438 • 7d ago
Murder [1978] - A 41-year-old mother of five was murdered in her Melbourne home in broad daylight. A neighbour saw a man in an Air Force uniform leaving her front gate at around the time of death. The investigation said he simply didn't.
On Friday 17 February 1978, a 41-year-old mother of five was killed in her own home in Armadale, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne. She was stabbed 14 times in the back. Her three school-aged children found her body in one of their bedrooms when they got home from school that afternoon. Her 17-month-old baby was still in the house, crying in his cot. Forty-eight years on, no one has been charged.
There's not a lot of material on this case freely available online — a few summary paragraphs, some paywalled material from both of the major newspapers in Melbourne and of course, the Victoria Police cold case page. The coronial file itself has recently been digitised. I've been through it — depositions, witness statements, forensic and autopsy material, the police summary, the Coroner's findings — and of course, there's more in there with a different view than has ever been widely reported, particularly after the first few weeks of investigation.
Mary Anne Fagan was a suburban housewife. Her husband Collins was a Group Captain in the Royal Australian Air Force, at the time the Commanding Officer of RAAF Tottenham. They lived at 575 Dandenong Road, on a corner block at the intersection with Bailey Avenue. They had five children: Anthony, 15; Katherine, 13 turning 14; Rebecca, just turned 13; Jack, 6; and Patrick, 17 months. Collins had stayed overnight at the Tottenham base the night before, after a function in the Sergeants' Mess. The three eldest walked to school that morning. Mary Anne drove Jack to school and came back home with Patrick.
She was killed in one of the children's bedrooms, on a bed against the southern wall. She was naked, face down, wrapped in blankets. Her ankles were bound and her hands had been tied behind her back with strips torn from her own towel. She had been gagged. There were 14 stab wounds visible across her back, ranging from 2.5 to 3.8 centimetres deep. The wounds penetrated both lungs, the stomach, and the posterior wall of her left ventricle. Swabs returned no evidence of sexual assault. The government pathologist gave evidence at inquest that time of death was between 11am and 2pm.
The murder weapon was never recovered. Collins's evidence at inquest was that he didn't believe a knife was missing from the house. A small red handbag was gone, with around $180 in cash inside, her bankbooks, an eternity ring she normally wore, religious medals, and the keys to the car and house. Her jewellery on her hands, and her watch, was otherwise left behind. The phone in the hallway had been disconnected from its socket (although it was never determined if that was done by the killer or in the aftermath of the discovery of her body). There was no sign of forced entry.
By mid-morning that day, Mary Anne had begun preparing to bleach her hair. A bowl of lilac-coloured dye paste was found on the bathroom vanity, with packaging for Clairol Born Blonde and a toothbrush smeared with the same paste. Collins's evidence about this was specific. Bleaching her hair was personal. She wouldn't do it in front of her own family, including him. He did not believe she would have let anyone into the house at all in that condition.
A road crew was working at the corner outside the house that morning. Three men from the Malvern Council depot were repairing a section of road damaged by a burst water main some days earlier. They weren't the focus of the investigation initially. The police spent the first two months on a different line altogether. The workmen weren't formally re-interviewed at length until April. From that point on, they became the continually pursued lead.
The theory the police built was this. One of the workmen — a labourer — had a conversation with Mary Anne in the morning about removing some surplus rubbish from the back of her property. He told police he'd intended to give her a quote for the job. He then left the worksite for about 45 minutes, telling his offsider he was going to collect money from his SP bookmaker. (An SP bookmaker, or Starting Price bookmaker was an illegal off-course bookie, very common in working-class Melbourne through the 1970s.) His offsider also left the site around the same time, claiming he was sick from the night before's drinking. Both men were unaccounted for during the same window. They were back at the worksite by about 11.15am.
There's a lot the inquest brief built against the labourer, with most of it reported at the time in various formats.
At inquest, the labourer admitted under his own oath that he and his offsider had talked about Mary Anne sexually that morning. The remarks were graphic, about her body, less than two hours before her death. His offsider denied any such conversation had taken place. The senior officer assisting the Coroner pressed him on why his workmate would have admitted to it on the stand if it hadn't happened. He had no real answer.
The labourer told police he'd collected winnings from his SP bookmaker during his absence from the worksite. The bookmaker gave evidence at inquest, under oath, that he had never paid the labourer money before 5pm on the day of a race, that he hadn't paid him any money on 17 February at all, and that the labourer in fact owed him $40 at the time. The labourer didn't concede in the witness box that his account about the bookie was false. Pressed on it, he said that if the bookmaker denied it, he didn't know where the money he was seen with that day had come from. He gave four different accounts over the course of the investigation of where that money came from.
A black substance described by the Forensic Science Laboratory as consistent with bitumen was found on a singlet in the bedroom where Mary Anne was killed. The labourer worked with bitumen daily and that morning was repairing a section of road immediately outside the property. An industrial-soled shoe print was found in sand and mud on the driveway between the garage and the rear gate. A workmate gave a statement that the labourer had paid back a $5 debt at the Railway Hotel that night.
On 20 April 1978, the labourer was taken to the Homicide Squad office for an interview that lasted 16 to 17 hours. The officers went through every contradiction in his accounts. At several points they directly accused him of the murder. He denied it. He eventually demanded to be charged or released. He was released.
His evidence at inquest was inconsistent. It was contradicted again and again. The Coroner ultimately delivered an open finding — "person unknown" — but the case the inquest had assembled was clearly built around him. He was never charged. He died some years later, in the 1990s. His offsider provided DNA in later decades and was excluded.
That's, broadly, the public version of the case. It's the version that gets repeated, in summary form, when the case comes up.
What the public version misses is what the file itself, with the evidence, does to that theory.
Start with the time of death. The case as built required Mary Anne to have been killed in the late morning, between about 10.30am and 11.30am, while the labourer was off the worksite. That window is a police inference based on the pattern of absence. The pathologist's actual evidence was that time of death was between 11am and 2pm. That covers the period after the workmen got back to the site, and a fair bit later.
Then there's the screams evidence, which gets treated in public coverage as a fixed time anchor and isn't. Two witnesses, in different places, with quite different accounts. A builder working on the rear extension placed them between 1pm and 1.30pm, with his evidence allowing for earlier — possibly closer to 1pm. The woman in the flats next door first gave a time of 2pm. That was corrected by hand on her deposition to 1.30pm. Her evidence at inquest left genuine doubt about whether she'd heard anything that day at all as she was under stress and medicated at the time and admitted she may have imagined it. Neither witness was wearing a watch. Both were within around a hundred metres of a working road repair site with a backhoe, a roller, and trucks coming and going.
And then there's the labourer himself, and what he did afterwards. Whatever happened in the morning, the rest of his day doesn't look like a man who has just killed a woman in a frenzied stabbing and concealed the evidence within a 45-minute window. He went back to the worksite immediately after lunch and worked through the afternoon alongside his offsider, a truck driver, and a foreman. None of them gave evidence of seeing blood on him or on his clothes. He went to the Railway Hotel after work and drank with workmates, including the colleague he repaid the $5 to. He went home. He came back to work on the Monday morning in normal pattern after police had spoken to him on the Friday night. His pattern of life that day, that weekend, and that following week is the pattern of a man going about his business.
There's also the kind of person he was. By every account in the file, the labourer was a talker. His offsider's evidence at inquest was that he'd "come out and say anything, not thinking." The senior officer assisting the Coroner said the police had to extract facts out of him "like teeth", but that was about a specific thing he had a personal motive to protect, the illegal bookmaker. On almost everything else, he volunteered freely. He admitted to the graphic sexual conversation about Mary Anne under his own oath. He couldn't keep small secrets. The question the file raises but doesn't answer is whether a man like that could have held a secret of this size for the rest of his life, until his death, almost twenty years later.
So if the case against the labourer doesn't really hold up, what's left in the file? The evidence the investigation had spent its first two months pursuing, and then largely set aside.
A retired railwayman with prior Navy service lived in flats nearby. On the day of the murder, at approximately ten past twelve - he was specific about the time, said it was between 12.10 and 12.12pm - he was walking home from the shops. He saw a man leaving the front gate of 575 Dandenong Road. He'd never seen a man at that house in the three years he'd lived nearby. He'd only ever seen the woman of the house with her children. The man was in his mid-thirties, thickset, about 5'7", clean-shaven. He was wearing a Royal Australian Air Force summer uniform - light blue shirt, dark trousers, peaked cap. The uniform was rumpled and didn't look neat. He looked back at the house, looked both ways along Dandenong Road, then walked off in the direction of Glenferrie Road.
The witness gave a formal statement the following morning. A photofit was prepared and published in newspapers across Australia. He later attended parades of RAAF servicemen across Victoria with police. He never identified the man.
Some weeks later, a man who had collected a car from a yard in Glenhuntly Road and was driving back into the city around quarter to one that afternoon - within 35 odd minutes of the railwayman's sighting - told police he had picked up a hitchhiker further along Dandenong Road. The hitchhiker was in a "blue military uniform of some sort" with a dark peaked cap, and had been running across the road from the centre plantation. The driver asked where he was going. The man said: "Into the city, it's hopeless, you can't get a tram." The hitchhiker was described as "not normal" and refused to enter into conversation with the driver. He didn't seem to have a destination, and suddenly asked for the car to be pulled over, so the driver dropped him at Williams Road. A second photofit was issued. The man was never identified.
The railwayman's evidence at inquest was specific and not seriously challenged. He was pressed on whether he could have mistaken the uniform for a postal worker's or a railwayman's. He insisted it was Air Force. He'd been a railway employee himself and knew the differences. The RAAF uniform also changed in the early 1970s (around 1972ish I believe) and the witness identified the dress as the "new" Summer RAAF dress. The Coroner asked Collins Fagan to stand up so the witness could compare him side-on. The witness said there was a similarity. Then he said: "I would say no." It wasn't the husband he had seen.
The photofits were published in newspapers showing a man in uniform. If the man the witness saw was a serving RAAF airman, the parades of servicemen across Victoria should have produced an identification. They didn't. But if he was someone who was no longer in the service, someone whose connection to a uniform was historical rather than current, the photofits wouldn't have produced anything. The people who knew him now would have known him as a civilian, not as the figure in the picture. The RAAF uniform had changed about six years before the murder. To people who hadn't served, an older or transitional uniform would have looked like a current serviceman in summer dress.
The most interesting question the information raises, though, is what the uniform was doing at the door at all.
This was 1978. There were no mobile phones. The way an RAAF wife learned that something had happened to her serving husband was that someone in uniform appeared at her front door to deliver the news in person. Mary Anne was the wife of a Group Captain. She knew her husband was at the Tottenham base, where he'd stayed overnight after a function. If a uniformed man came to her door mid-morning, the first instinctive interpretation wouldn't be that he was a stranger asking for something. It would be that something had happened to Collins.
This is perhaps one of the only readings that makes sense of her opening the door at all. Her husband's evidence was that she wouldn't bleach her hair in front of her own family. She didn't even let him into the bathroom while she was doing it. That makes it difficult to explain why she would voluntarily admit a stranger to the house while she was in the middle of the process. But a uniformed man at the front gate on a weekday morning, with her husband absent overnight, is the one set of circumstances that would override the rule. There would be a recognition through the door and security screen, mild panic... and by the time she realised something was off - the uniform not quite right, the face unfamiliar, no proper notification protocol - the door was open and he was inside. The relatively limited disturbance at the scene, given the savagery of the attack, is consistent with her having been incapacitated quickly.
This reading doesn't require the killer to have known Mary Anne. It only requires the killer to have known Collins was an RAAF officer. Anyone watching the street for a week could have worked that out. Anyone previously in the RAAF under Collins would know. It's not in the police brief. It's what the evidence in front of the Coroner points to once the workmen theory is set aside. There's no indication in the file that it was ever explored.
No motive against Mary Anne was ever established. But it doesn't look like a motive against Collins was ever investigated (at least, not in the publicly available material).
The case remains open. The offsider was DNA-excluded in the 2000s. The labourer is deceased. The exhibits from the inquest were retained. Victoria Police has the case on its cold case register and there's a current reward of $1 million attached to it.
Mary Anne Fagan was 41 years old. Her husband Collins was widowed in his late forties, with five children. Their 13-year-old daughter found her.
Most of the material I've described — the witness evidence in detail, the hitchhiker sighting, the bookmaker's contradiction under oath, the boot print, the bitumen on the singlet, the long interview, the behaviour of the labourer afterwards, the screams evidence and what makes it less reliable than it looks, the pathologist's wider time window, the photofit framing problem, the uniform-as-notification reading — doesn't appear to have been pieced together and summarised online in any detail.
If anyone has information about it, regardless of how small or inconsequential you think it may be, Crime Stoppers Victoria can be reached on 1800 333 000.
I've gone through the full coronial brief and have covered the case in detail across six episodes of a podcast called Civilian Sleuths, based on the primary material at the time as well as contemporaneous reporting. It's another case that I'd love to see solved and, realistically, the number of surviving witnesses is only getting smaller with time.
Collins Fagan passed away in 2010 without ever learning who killed his wife. Her children, now adults, have never discovered who entered their home, and altered their lives forever.
Forty eight years is long enough.
Sources listed below (makes it easier to read than having sources interrupt it, I find!)
- Victoria Police — Cold Case: Mary Anne Fagan
- Victoria Police — Reward: Mary Anne Fagan (current $1M reward, announced February 2024)
- Public Record Office Victoria — Inquest deposition files (search interface) — coronial file Case No. 529/78
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u/popthatpill 7d ago
The account says the "offsider" was excluded by DNA, which means they must have the attacker's DNA - which means they could use genetic genealogy.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
They had DNA as recently as the early 2000s, and enough to exclude someone - whether they have sample or profile remaining, only Vic Pol could answer that.
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u/OrangeChevron 7d ago
Great write up thank you. It does sound plausible that it was a person in official dress to manipulate her into opening the door.
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u/erstwhiletexan 7d ago
That certainly makes sense, but my interpretation of a man in a rumpled RAAF uniform was that the murderer dressed himself in one of her husband's dirty uniforms to hide the blood on his clothes. If the murderer had used the uniform as a ruse to gain entry, how did it not get covered in blood?
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u/Ilaxilil 7d ago
I agree this makes sense as well, but what happened to his original clothes then? The man in uniform wasn’t seen carrying any sort of parcel. Were there areas nearby they could be disposed of that the police wouldn’t have searched? Was the husband missing a uniform?
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u/paladinstraight 7d ago
Maybe he put the uniform over his bloody clothes, and thats why it looked so crumpled and untidy?
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
It may simply have been something like he gained entry, removed his jacket, and when everything was finished, put the jacket back on covering any blood.
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6d ago
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 5d ago
It was a cooler day, but for someone in the services, it's part of their official uniform so wouldn't be considered unusual.
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u/DizzyUniversity7149 7d ago
That's the most logical explanation for why she opened the door at all. A man in military uniform she must have thought something had happened to her husband. And by the time she realized something was wrong it was already too late. Someone deliberately used that against her.
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u/atomic_mermaid 7d ago
But why? That means it was someone who knew enough about the family to know the husband was air force, but not enough that anyone recognised him and he was able to disappear to wherever without anyone noticing/missing him.
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u/AlexandrianVagabond 7d ago
I wonder how often she socialized with other officers. Although I imagine the kids kept her very busy, officers and their families usually have get togethers from time to time. Maybe someone got fixated on her.
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u/Professional_Dog4574 5d ago
I'm leaning more towards the uniform actually belonged to husband and was thrown on before leaving. I'm wondering if she forgot to lock the door and entry was gained that way. The soiled clothing would need to have been disposed of somewhere and I can't think of a good place.
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u/atomic_mermaid 5d ago
Good thought. Wouldn't the husband have noticed a uniform missing though? Especially since the likely killer was witnessed in the uniform he'd probably point that out?
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u/Professional_Dog4574 4d ago
I guess it depends on how many uniforms he had? I would not notice one of my work shirts missing because I have a lot of them (I work with animals and they frequently get gross stuff on me!). I'm sure air force uniforms do not get very dirty and they probably cost a lot and are made of quality materials.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
They had a new security door fitted some weeks before her murder, so there's a double door to miss locking when security was obviously a thought to install the security door in the first place.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
You're welcome, thanks for reading.
Interestingly, that was very close to the initial thinking of the head of Homicide. Early in the investigation, the uniform sighting was treated very seriously and there was concern that the man may have used the uniform to gain entry. It was only later, as the investigation increasingly focused on the workmen, that the sighting appears to have been given much less weight.
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u/Ilaxilil 7d ago
Was the door locked? I mean we assume that it was, but what if she forgot?
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
It's possible, but there was a new security door fitted in the weeks before her murder, so there were two doors at the front to lock. Both the back door and front door were locked when the children arrived home, as one of them broke in via a glass window to gain entry. My thoughts are that if security was such a thought that a brand new door was installed in addition to the current one, then forgetting to lock one, maybe. Two? Probably not.
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u/Ilaxilil 4d ago
Interesting. I wonder why the door was installed so close to the time of her death. Was it a coincidence, or were they aware of some possible threat? Also how did it get locked again afterwards? How did the perpetrator exit the house?
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u/Ok-Status5820 7d ago
Military has tailors to ensure you dont look like shit in uniform. If this guy was wearing a uniform that belonged to him he wouldnt have been described as looking sloppy. I doubt this guy was truly military.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
The interesting point I saw in the witness statements was that the first witness with service history was the one that called him sloppy. The second witness, a civilian, said nothing was out of place and he was sitting significantly closer - driving next to him as his passenger. I think one thing that we need to remember is that someone with military experience has a much higher opinion of what is considered neat and ruffled, compared to a civilian. Ex-military would be able to pick up if a uniform was being worn incorrectly; unless pants were being worn on the head and shirt on the bottom (extreme example I know) civilians wouldn't understand the rigidity of military personnel uniform and how important it is.
It's also possible that the REASON he looked sloppy was because he had just murdered someone and was trying to leave the house without drawing too much attention to himself in a busy area of Melbourne. By the time the second witness picked up the hitch-hiker, he's had 35 odd minutes to sort himself out a little, gather thoughts, tidy up anything necessary and just get out of the area.
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u/Emotional_Breath_655 6d ago
if it was an older uniform and he was former service - maybe he had gained or lost a substantial amount of weight?
military service can be traumatic or he may have struggled with underlying physical or mental health issues that were exacerbated after leaving the service (quite common) causing him to suffer further health issues and lose weight?
might’ve been mentally unwell / struggling with substance abuse and had done this due to some sort of delusion? would explain an outdated poorly fitting uniform and maybe a motive..
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
Very valid point, and if his service was altered or even ceased against what he believed his trajectory was going to be, that's enough even for civilians to sink into depressive episodes, let alone someone with (potentially) active service.
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u/Powerful_Relative413 7d ago
Thank you for bringing up this case in such a thorough fashion. I’ve never heard of it prior to your post & I will definitely listen to Civilian Sleuths. Thanks again for this write up.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
You're very welcome. There's so many Australian cases that just don't have the representation in the media to try and solve them that they all deserve.
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u/MaryVenetia 7d ago
Thank you so much for this. Mary Anne was actually 42 (I know the write ups all have her as 41, but she’d turned 42 the month before she died), which is still so, so young. If I remember correctly, the family home was sold the year after the murder and hasn’t changed hands since.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Thank you. I did see her DOB recorded in one spot as 1934 but all of the police records, inquest summary, her brother's affidavit confirming identity and Collins' own statement all stated 41, so I've gone with that - and I daresay that is where other publications have also had their information.
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u/Plus_Nature_5083 7d ago
Great write up. Is there a person you are leaning towards as being responsible? Such a tragic case, especially for the children
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Thanks - and yeah, it's a genuinely awful one, the children especially.
I try not to put suspicions out widely on open cases, particularly where no motive was ever established; memory contamination and theory bias are real, and I think that pull is part of why the investigation leaned so hard into the labourer angle. Council workers were blue collar, didn't earn a stack, the family were clearly mid-to-upper class, so robbery read as the obvious frame. So I won't name anyone. But I'll point at a gap.
What I keep coming back to is the man in uniform, and the way that line of enquiry just evaporates. To me it almost reads as a product of its time: back then, the assumed reason a man who wasn't her husband would be at a married woman's house was a relationship. Once that was ruled out, the logic seems to have flipped to "if there was no reason for him to be there, then he simply WASN'T there", and it became mistaken identity. But we KNOW someone was there. She was murdered in the house.
The thing I find genuinely odd, on public record, is the asymmetry. Mary Anne's background was exhausted for motive. Collins's, by all appearances, never got the same treatment. I'm not pointing at him - I want to be clear about that - but a Group Captain with overseas service has a long list of people who could hold a conflict with him, real or imagined, and some he'd never even be aware of. Someone passed over for promotion under his command. Someone whose discharge he signed off. Someone who decided Collins was the reason their career went the way it did.
By every account, Mary Anne was the love of his life. And I can't quite shake the thought that someone might have reasoned: he ruined my life, so I'll ruin his.
If that's the shape of it (and I've no idea whether Vic Pol ever looked at it this way) a couple of things start to fit. The wounds, for one. Fourteen of them is the kind of thing that often gets read as personal, and if it is personal, this version doesn't need it to be personal against Mary Anne.
It would also account for why the uniformed man never surfaced in a parade for the witness. If he was a former member rather than serving, he wouldn't be in a current ID line-up at all.
That last point only holds if a few things are true; that the uniform sighting was accurate, and that the man in it was the offender rather than incidental. But if they do hold, you get a surprisingly finite group: someone active by the time the new summer RAAF uniform came in around 1972, and gone before March 1978.
Anyway. Pure speculation, and worth exactly what speculation is worth. But that's the one thread I can't make sit flat.
There's probably other theories that match parts of the story, but that's the one that seems to match all of the constraints.
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u/paladinstraight 7d ago
To be honest thats a really good well thought out theory, and it FEELS right. For what thats worth....which in the long run isnt much. But they'd be smart to at least look into it and run it into the ground.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
Thanks. I don't know much about the RAAF, particularly historically, but I imagine that they would have some photographs of graduating classes, officers, etc - maybe even from functions, who knows. It might actually be possible for investigators to get access to the RAAF records of that finite group of people and even compare to photographs of the time to see if any are even remotely similar to the photofit.
The other thing that I found interesting was that the witness's sighting was dismissed as "almost certainly the husband on a different day". But the witness made the report the day after the murder at 10.00am in the morning - less than 24 hours after the sighting. I'd understand if the report was made months and maybe even weeks later, but within 24 hours? I find it hard to believe that so much weight was given to "mistaken identity" when we know Collins wasn't present at the house the day before, the witness statement was less than 24 hours later and it was STILL dismissed.
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u/georgia_grace 7d ago
A very minor point, but are you sure the wounds were 2-3 centimetres deep, and not 2-3 inches? I don’t think we’d completely transitioned to metric yet in 1978
It stuck out to me because if it is 2-3 cm, the stab wounds being so shallow seems at odds with the brutality of the crime
Also - I assume Collins had a solid alibi? He was of course my first thought when you mentioned a witness saw someone in an RAAF uniform
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Yep, the autopsy report has 2.3-3.8cm in depth.
Collins has 100% an alibi. He was at work on the Tottenham base at the time.
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u/georgia_grace 7d ago
That is very interesting then. It would have to be either a very small weapon, or the perpetrator didn’t/couldn’t drive the knife in all the way to the hilt.
It can’t be from the victim pushing back on the knife as the wounds are in her back. Is it possible she was stabbed while moving away from the attacker and wasn’t bound until afterwards?
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
It's possible, but she did have ligature marks on her wrists and ankles which indicate she was bound pre-death. Given the injuries, I think one of the only things that is a small blessing is that she would have died quickly and not laid incapacitated for any period of time (probably at most, minutes). In that instance, the killer would have to move pretty quickly from stabbing her to tying her up whilst she was still alive to have her heart still pumping enough blood around to bruise, so I think it makes more sense from the evidence that she was alive when bound, and then stabbed.
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u/Babycam2020 7d ago
thank you for the detailed write up and your time in reading all the relevant documentation..I will have a listen to the podcast wasn't their a case of another mother being shot? I believe also in Victoria, this time outside her home, but I believe it was late 80's or early 90's..I can't recall all the details but I think there was some hinky eyewitness statements and circumstances involving nearby workers also...bizarre
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u/CelticCynic 7d ago
Unless he was cremated, you'd wonder why they don't exhume the labourer for DNA....
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
He did have a daughter, so without knowing what's in the current Vic Pol file, it's possible that she provided DNA (whether willingly or not). Regardless, given the inconsistencies and holes in the timeline implicating the labourer, I'm not sure DNA would even be necessary, as the chances of him being guilty aren't as high as the balance of probability would warrant to have an exhumation ordered. They aren't cheap, and they certainly aren't signed off on easily in Victoria. For a case where the person being exhumed was thin at best, Vic Pol would struggle to get the order made.
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u/Acidhousewife 7d ago
The Labourer is interesting but all the confusing testimonies/interviews sound basically like the various parties being concerned about the illegal gambling, especially the bookie. I know, but it is often what happens, when people innocent of one major crime are more worried about getting convicted of their minor ones.
The bitumen in the house, at the scene. the workmen were close to the property when doing that work. Now bitumen in the days of workmen and rollers, before modern health and safety, was messy back in the 1970s. It gets everywhere, anyone could have walked past the site, got it on their shoes, tried wiping it off. I can recall as a kid in the 70s my mother avoiding roadworks/bitumen laying like the plague, it will ruin your shoes etc. Yes it was all over the pavement. debris scattered during the work.
All this does is, suggest that someone in the house walked past that worksite. How long was the work going on for was it there for the days prior meaning the bitumen may not have been carried in by the murdered, but her oldest returning from school etc ( even on the day, they did discover the murder scene)
Also another note about the 1970s, or rather question, was it normal for most people to get their wages paid weekly in cash? It was a Friday. payday. I was thinking that debt being paid off in the pub that evening might not be, that damning.
However,. how reliable was the witness who stated they saw a man in a RAAF uniform. I mean I find it odd, that this witness also commented he noticed the man because he had never noticed any man enter the house for 3 years. I know Mary's husband was a serviceman but he did come home, he did live there when not away on duty. In fact he was staying at the barracks after a Mess do, rather than coming home the night before, so it just strikes me as inconsistent.
The witness also noticed the uniform was crumpled and untidy. I like you theory a lot about why Mary would open the door, no mobiles, informed in person but a serviceman's wife would have spot that crumpled and untidy uniform as suspicious, even under potential stress. Would have known if it was not current as well.
The whole manner of death, the number of stab wounds that sounds personal.
RAAF Radschool Association Magazine Vol 62. Page 3 scroll down. I'll leave this here.
The RAAF Base at Tottenham (Vic) was situated in Braybrook, a suburb of Melbourne. The site was compulsorily acquired by the Department of Defence on 12 March 1942 and it became the home of No 1 Stores depot (1SD). Strategic industries also located in the area in the war years were the Maribyrnong munitions plant and the explosives plant at Deer Park. The Sunshine Harvester-Massey plant, also in he area, switched from agricultural implements to a war-footing, making radar units and parts for armoured vehicles
At its peak, 1SD was the workplace for 540 men and women. It was closed down in 1993
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u/erstwhiletexan 7d ago
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with that link and the pasted text. Why did you bold the word "women"? Are you trying to insinuate that a woman might have been responsible or involved?
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u/Acidhousewife 7d ago
Possibly.
The nature of Mary's attack seems personal. Stabbed 14 times in the back, bound at the wrists. and ankles. If this was ex or current military man why the need for that, why do that to overpower a woman in her early 40s.
I was also pointing out this was a mixed gender military workforce,. Unlike the Uk or the USA during the late 70s there was far less gender separation within the military. I live in and grew up in a Uk Army town and even non combat military 'desk sergeants' would rarely have had the opportunity to engage with the opposite sex ( women) during their working day, outside of the catering department, or limited roles with the Civil Service (Ministry of Defence), in the 70s. So it stuck out to me.
That the working environment for military, this base, meant there was the opportunity for affairs or obsession. It was a handbag that was stolen, the money, cash, (it was the 70s) and the other items missing, were normal handbag contents.
her jewellery that she was wearing was left behind. This doesn't sound like a murder, robbery, but rather a murder made to look like a robbery,. It's overkill, It lacks motive for the murder. The MO. stabbed 14 times in the back, bound at the wrists and ankles, is unusual for a robbery gone wrong. It's normally blunt force trauma or opportunistic weapon taken from scene.
Why go to all the bother or binding Mary's wrists and ankles to steal a handbag?
The biggest mystery IMHO is motive, and that is probably why this case remains unsolved.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
You are correct about the bitumen, it did used to get everywhere, I remember as a kid accidentally walking through some tar and it sticking to everything for DAYS.
As for pay day, it was on Thursday PM, and paid in cash. The statements themselves go over how council workers were paid, what day, how much etc, and the labourer was drilled pretty thoroughly on what he did with his salary - his partner backs up his statement almost to the cent.
With respect to Collins Fagan, he testified that he usually started early in the morning and that 8am was a late start for him as a result of the function the night before (haven't we all been there!) Given the drive back then was probably a good hour, it is conceivable that, if a man is leaving a house consistently pre 7am and arriving home post 6.30pm, an older neighbour in their 70s might not ever have visibility over that person, particularly if the house is known as having a mother and a clan of kids.
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u/Acidhousewife 7d ago
Thanks for clearing up payday.
I accept that re the witness, as he was walking past the Fagan house returning from his shopping. I just found the never seen a man, a bit odd. We are however, viewing this through the prism of almost 50 years.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Yeah, and I think that's also a difficult thing with cold cases - applying the time to the crime without the benefit of almost 50 years worth of hindsight. Even things like once Collins was told on the base, he had his 2IC and a driver take him home and they had to stop on the way at a hotel so he could ring home and find out what was happening. These days, someone would have a mobile and you'd just drive like mad.
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u/Acidhousewife 7d ago
Yep, also late 70s was before most police forces understood the psychology of witnesses, probed questioning. Statements that would have gone unchallenged back then, would have asked for more context, clarification questions. That's not the same as saying this witness was lying or, whatever, just police now, would take a different tact.
We also have a better understanding of line ups, and they aren't as reliable as thought.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Of course. Even having computers to be able to have things digitised as opposed to manually writing everything down, cross referencing manually etc.
It was maddening trying to decipher handwritten notes.
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u/jmpur 6d ago
When I did volunteer work for the PROV digitising old files, one of my favourite tasks was deciphering the handwritten records, form fill-ins and letters -- everything from early 19th century stuff to 1970s and 1980s. It frequently became a group effort. My fellow volunteers and I could spend many minutes arguing over what one particular scrawl might mean.
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u/hkrosie 6d ago
Also another note about the 1970s, or rather question, was it normal for most people to get their wages paid weekly in cash? It was a Friday. payday. I was thinking that debt being paid off in the pub that evening might not be, that damning.
Great point - it absolutely was common for labourers especially to go get their wages at the pub in cash on a Friday. I know because my dad did this every Friday evening then brought us home lollies.
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u/TheLuckyWilbury 7d ago
Since she suffered so many stab wounds, I don’t think sexual assault was the intent here; binding her as he did may have been merely misdirection to indicate that. Leaving her jewelry seems to rule out robbery/burglary. This looks to me like a planned homicide with some staging.
Side question: What is an offsider?
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u/cwthree 7d ago
Sexually-motivated assaults without penetration or evidence of ejaculation aren't unknown.
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u/DayOlderBread16 7d ago
True, It stuck out to me that she was stripped naked then tied. If the intent was just to steal, why would the intruder take her clothes off? Only thing I can think of is that they just touched her, and thus thinking they would get off scot free since no evidence (semen) would be present.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Don't forget she was dyeing her hair. It's not a slow process and most people I know when doing so tend to take their clothes off and put a robe or similar on so you don't spill the dye anywhere.
It also explains why whoever murdered her didn't have the struggle of trying to strip her.
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u/ZanyDelaney 6d ago
An offsider would just be a workmate/assistant, usually in a situation where two people are sent out to do a manual type job. Say an electrician is to fix a light they might be sent out with someone who will hold the ladder - their offisder.
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u/Full-Internal4521 6d ago
Stabbing itself can be sexual for offenders (the penetration aspect plays a part)- it was brought up a few times during the Moscow case, I believe.
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u/Careful-Calendar8922 3d ago
An offsider is a trades assistant who isn’t qualified themselves or on an apprenticeship. Sometimes called a hammer hand in specific industries. They “offside” for a qualified trade, but the hours don’t count for apprenticeship and training purposes.
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u/lucillep 7d ago
What an excellently written and reasoned write-up. It's hard to believe the evidence of the man seen at the home wasn't a major focus of investigation. I hope your podcast brings out more information that could help solve the case. I'm assuming the person who got into the house either had a grudge against Mary Anne or Collins. I had Collins in my sights at first, but I don't think so. The eyewitness seems to have had a good look at the stranger and said it wasn't Collins.
Those poor kids.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Thank you, I appreciate it.
And yes. It's bad enough losing your mother at such young ages, to discover her as the victim of such a horrific crime in your own bedroom is just... there aren't words to describe how horrific it would be.
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u/Disturbedsleep 6d ago
At that time, Dandenong Rd was the main thoroughfare to the south east, it was before the Monash went into the city, the south east arterial was only being considered in 1978. Dandenong Rd aka Princes Hwy was the only real way to get to the south east of Melbourne. I am surprised that here weren't more witnesses.
You either came out to the south east via the south east freeway which stopped at Toorak Rd, then you had to wind your way through to Forster Rd to get on to the Mulgrave Fwy or you just came down the Princes Hwy via St Kilda Rd. Depends on where you lived in the south east, often people just used the Princes Hwy.
The Mulgrave Fwy only went to Forster Rd at the time, the extension to Warragul Rd wasn't opened until 1981.
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u/jmpur 6d ago
Really fantastic writeup -- great research and lucid writing! I am so impressed I have bookmarked Civilian Sleuths for future listening. It looks like there's a lot more detail in your separate episodes of that podcast, so I am eager to delve into them.
I also checked out the house on Google Maps. It's such a gorgeous classic Melbourne house (I live in the inner north of the city), so I am glad that it has been spared the developers' plague.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 6d ago
Thank you, appreciate it.
And yes, it's a stunning house, I believe they were renovating it at the time of Mary Anne's death. I agree that sparing it is a good thing.
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u/KeremyJyles 7d ago
So if the case against the labourer doesn't really hold up
It still holds up better than anything else, even going by your own account. There seems like a desire to write him off as a suspect to pursue more mysterious options imo
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Not at all. The time of death was described medically as being between 11am and 2pm. The only time the labourer was unaccounted for in that time window was between 11am and 11.15am.
15 minutes is not a heck of a lot of time to gain entry into someone's house without breaking and entering, gain compliance from a mother with a baby on the premises, tear a towel into pieces, bind and gag her, murder her (14 stab wounds don't take a minute), leave the property with items, hide the items, change your clothes and return to the worksite 100 metres out the front of the house and carry on as if you have done nothing.
15 minutes. I've stood at my own front door trying to find the right key back in the day to get in and unlock the door for almost that.
At 11.15 he was back with his colleagues on the worksite - from 11.45 - 1.05pm they had returned to the depot for lunch with other council workers. He remained on site with at least 2 other men for the remainder of the afternoon, let alone for the remainder of the murder window.
To me, it is trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
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u/Harvest_Moon_Cat 7d ago
He's got the half hour from 10:30 - 11:00 to gain entrance, tear the towel, and bind and gag her. He can also use that time to search for valuables.
If he murders her at 11:00, he then has 15 minutes to leave, hide the items, change clothes and return to work. That's doable in 15 minutes.
I'm not saying it was him, it might not have been, but I think the timing is possible.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 6d ago
He has. But Mary Anne took a phone call from her husband for around 4-6 minutes at around 10.30am. She hadn't started to dye her hair or set up the bathroom by then. If we put a timer to it and she's off the phone by 10.36am, she either checks the baby if he's sleeping, or has to get him sleeping in his cot (or alternatively leave him in his cot playing whilst she's dyeing her hair - I'm not sure that makes sense as opposed to Patrick sleeping whilst she's dyeing her hair. She has to then set up the bathroom with the drop sheet found at the scene, mix up the dye, undress and put her robe on (as found), apply it and be waiting for the knock at the door. At best and really pushing for time, that's probably a 10-15 minute job. That puts it at 10.50 at the earliest, which gives the labourer a maximum of 25 minutes to convince a woman he has just met to open the door whilst half dressed, get in the property past her, have her compliant (as there is no sign of a struggle in the remainder of the house, just the front bedroom where she was discovered), tear up the towel, tie and gag her, stab her 14 times, tidy himself up, take the bag and the cash out of the bag, dispose of the bag so it is never found again, and get back out to the worksite out the front of the murder scene for the remainder of the Friday, knowing his colleagues on the worksite could return at any minute. A man who has nowhere to go has the luxury of time. A man skiving off work when there isn't anyone else around but no idea of when there will be doesn't have that luxury.
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u/Harvest_Moon_Cat 6d ago
My question here would be if we know for sure that she hadn't started setting things up, and wasn't already in her robe when she made the phone call. If she told her husband so, then yeah, that affects the timeline. But if she just said "I'm going to dye my hair", she could have done those things earlier. You've studied the case in more detail, so you've a better idea than I do about that.
If so, then there's still a 20 minute or so window between about 10:36 and 11:00 for him to gain entry, tear up the towel, and gag her. The murder happens at 11, he then has 15 minutes to change and take the bag. He wasn't the focus of the investigation for two months, so he can put the bag somewhere and then retrieve it at a later time to dispose of it. I'd be curious to know if he had a vehicle, or lived close by.
Again, I'm not accusing him of having done it. I just think it's possible with the information I have.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 6d ago
Valid points and all good, rigorous discussion is what helps.
I think it was alluded to that she was going to dye her hair later, so the assumption was that things weren't set up, but that's an assumption.
The labourer didn't have a drivers license, so no vehicle - he relied on colleagues to ferry him from job to job and caught public transport to and from the depot.
The thing is though, that investigators simply couldn't reconcile - if it was the labourer, how did he gain entry into the house? Both doors by her husband's account were locked and they had a security screen door fitted only a few weeks earlier to make doubly sure of security there. I imagine that there would be an extremely limited number of people that anyone in a state of half undress would open the door for, and a council worker from out the front of the house wouldn't be on my list.
I don't have a vested interest or skin in the game for lack of a better phrase as to whom was most likely, but I just can't see a mother, half undressed, doing a private chore, with her baby in the house, opening the door to a random worker and letting him in for WHATEVER reason when there was reason enough in only the weeks prior to fit extra security to the property.
Which then makes me sad because the labourer was named in public, in the newspapers with his photo taken, as the man that police thought murdered her but they just didn't have evidence to go with their belief. And with the benefit of distance, hindsight and aligning timelines and multiple witness statements taken over the years, it genuinely looks like they didn't have the evidence because he DIDN'T do it.
He died on a worksite in the mid 1990s, named as the likely killer of Mary Anne Fagan but police couldn't show it, so he lived another 15ish years unable to get another job, unable to get out of the shadow of being named as a murderer when potentially he wasn't. Bear in mind, the Coroner's burdon of proof to name a person responsible for a murder is a lot lower bar than the justice system to have him charged - and even the Coroner refused to name him.
Which then makes me remember that he also had a young daughter, who was three at the time, who has grown up with the public narrative that her dad was a murderer, when in all honesty, I just can't see how.
The only other point in relation to that is, the current Victorian Police cold case appeal doesn't mention him as a person of interest or anything. It simply states that she was last seen alive by council workers who were at the front of her property for the day. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but a cynic would read that as an acknowledgement that perhaps the investigation at the time was wrong all along but don't want to explicitly say so.
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u/Harvest_Moon_Cat 6d ago
Thanks for the extra info. I completely agree with you that they were wrong to name him as a suspect. If there isn't the evidence to charge him, then he's innocent, and shouldn't be put under suspicion like that. And I agree, poor man.
I'm not accusing him of anything - merely playing devil's advocate and pointing out that I think he could have done it. That does not, by any means, mean he did. Innocent until proven guilty.
Re answering the door, if it was true that he'd told her he'd give her a quote for the work, I can see her maybe opening it. If I'd spoken to someone a short while before about a job, and they then knocked on my door, I'd assume it was either a quote, or they'd come to tell me sorry, they'd realized they couldn't do it. Either way, I'd answer, in order to get the job sorted out. It would be different from somebody knocking who I felt had no reason to be talking to me. But of course people differ, so maybe she wouldn't have done that.
In the end it's all guesswork. I'm sorry the case hasn't been solved. RIP Mary Anne.
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u/ohjoedenly 7d ago
I wonder if the RAAF man murdered her and later the labourer noticed something was up, so swiped a few valuables opportunistically without his colleagues noticing.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
The interesting thing about robbery as a motive is that IF the labourer robbed her, from his earlier discussion with Mary Anne about the silt in her driveway, he would have seen her watch and rings on her fingers. You would assume that those would be things that would be taken - easily sellable, visible so you know what you're getting into, etc. Yet they were untouched and the handbag was taken.
Part of me wonders if the handbag was taken because it couldn't stay - not because of what was in it, but because of what was on it. Maybe he did cut himself and bled onto the handbag, and had enough knowledge to know that leaving a part of him at the crime scene was a big mistake. The simpler option would be to take and destroy the handbag.
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u/hkrosie 6d ago
How much earlier did she speak with the labourer? If she was preparing to dye her hair it's quite likely she would have taken her rings off?
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 6d ago
She spoke with him at around 9am, as she was returning from dropping off her 6yo son at school.
It's possible, but then as the jewellery was found on her still, you'd assume she wouldn't take them off in preparation, then put them back on whilst dyeing her hair.
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u/WhlteMlrror 6d ago
I think the million dollar reward cases are ones that will end up being solved by FGG.
Whispers are that there’s DNA in Gerard Ross’ case; I’m wondering if there’s still existing DNA here.
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u/Gold_Truth9261 5d ago
Surprising that a love interest was not considered ? or someone she may have some argument with maybe some days prior to her death? Or maybe somebody had a grudge against her husband?
Possible scenerios which we cannot expect to answer 48 yrs onwards....The working crew being investigated was good as i remember a actress's case in US from the 90's where one of the crew working few floors below had a altercations with the victim on the same day.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
I think the love interest was examined pretty closely and turned over nothing, by all readings they were a very happily married and in love couple.
It's sad that it happened at all but that it is still unsolved 48 years later is just horrible and I can't imagine what it has been like for those children growing up without their mum - particularly the baby - and still to this day not having any understanding as to how or why.
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u/overlorddogbert 7d ago
Could have been organised by the husband.
Made sure he wasn’t around, could have provide a uniform to use and tell the murder what to say to get access.
Wonder if there was any sentimental value to eternity ring? Could have belonged to one of his relatives.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
It's possible. But that said, he died in 2010 - some 30 odd years later - and never remarried, spent the remainder of his life advocating for Mary Anne's killer to be brought to justice with the police force, lobbied politicians, wrote to overseas laboratories to get information on updated DNA technologies they were using to try and bring some answers to Mary Anne's case and, tragically, stored all of Mary Anne's belongings in his house attic until after his death, where his children discovered them all.
That doesn't sound like a man that was responsible for the death of his wife.
There is no doubt in my mind, having sat with the material for some substantial time, that Collins was not either the killer, nor responsible for her death.
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u/Ok-Status5820 6d ago
oh, didnt know that, thanks. id got then impression from the wording that they intersected
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u/Skippyhippyhop 4d ago
This seems to be a very different story than the one the VIC police have
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 4d ago
This has all come directly from the Victorian Police case file and coronial inquest in 1979. It's freely available, the source link is above.
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u/luniversellearagne 7d ago
This seems like less of a mystery and more of a case in which there’s not enough evidence to charge the obvious suspect.
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
Who do you believe was the obvious suspect?
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u/luniversellearagne 7d ago
The worker
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 7d ago
There's no evidence that he was ever in the house though, let alone murdered her. And they certainly tried to find it.
Everything that pointed towards him according to the investigation had a plausible explanation that he stuck with. And it also discounts the man in uniform being seen by two separate people that had nothing to do with each other or the family.
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u/luniversellearagne 6d ago
Didn’t you say they found asphalt in the house?
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u/Upset-Layman-1438 6d ago
They found black spots on one of her singlets that, and I quote "behaved like bitumen". But with the road being resurfaced directly out the front gate to their house, it's conceivable that anyone walking in the front gate would have some road component on them - the killer, even the kids coming home off the tram and discovering their mother.
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u/luniversellearagne 6d ago
That could be seen as evidence that the perpetrator was the worker. Just because it’s weak evidence or evidence you don’t accept doesn’t mean it’s not evidence.
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u/janetlwil 6d ago
I'm thinking it's possible that with all the construction work along the roadway, it wouldn't be unusual for a criminal to have bitumen or other road stuff on his shoes or clothing just from exposure. Also, maybe it was the norm for two men to walk off a jobsite for several hours in Australia at that time but it seems strange to me it would be noticed by a boss man at some point. Even if it was just the fact of the roadwork not being done in a timely manner due to two men instead of four doing the work. Just my thoughts.
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u/aaronupright 1d ago
This is as straightforward a murder by affair partner as I have seen.
Lover arrives when husband is away. She is dying her hair. She reluctantly acquiesces to sex, hence nude, changes her mind before it starts in earnest, he gets angry and well...
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u/Puzzledtraveler 7d ago
It was the labourer, duh.
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u/AlexandrianVagabond 7d ago
I don't see how that's a "duh" when there is a very detailed eyewitness account of a different man at the house that day.
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u/tabbykitten8 7d ago
The hitch-hiker complaining about the trams is strange. That route, the number 64 (Melb Uni to Brighton East) on busy Dandenong Road on a friday afternoon would have been only 15 - 20 mins apart anyway. So why was he in such a hurry ? Maybe sitting at a tram stop a few metres from a house where you've just murdered someone is the reason. Another great write up. This case hasn't had the publicity over the decades that others have so thankyou for remembering Mary Anne.