Unsolved The Wanda Beach Murders

[Kurve]

Of interest
- Christopher Wilder - The Beauty Queen Killer
- Derek Percy

 

[Exe Gesis]

I'm just shocked at all those people saying how good looking he was ... he looks like the creepy uncle all the kids avoid at Christmas

Must be a 60's/70's thing.

 

[hirdy_is_champ]

Channel 7, particularly "sunday night" are big ****ing morons. All they do is talk shit and compromise cases, so much so, that one of their muckrakers had to front the courts about the Falconio case. She should've been sent to prison. Someone's abhorrent death, is not your opportunity for tv ratings you disgusting arseholes at ch 7.

 

[Visions]

All these investigative journalism pieces Channel 7 (read Michael Usher) have done recently like the Beaumont Children and Wanda Beach murders are remnants of the Murder Uncovered series that got axed last year.

They were going to be part of it before it got given the flick so instead are now coming out in separate pieces. There will be more to come.

 

[BFew]

 

[BFew]

First part of this 2006 CIA: Crime Investigation Australia Steve Liebmann doco is about Wanda beach.

CI investigates into two of the most infamous unsolved mysteries in Australian criminal history are examined in The Wanda Beach Murders and The Beaumont Children Mystery. Hosted by respected journalist, Steve Liebmann, CIA uncovers the true stories behind these cases through chilling re-enactments and access to the key detectives, family members and witnesses involved.

Edit: Original like no longer available. Found another one.

 

[GreyCrow]

This is an age regression representation of Christopher Wilder at the time of the WB murders



Given Wilder is also a suspect in 2 Sydney murders in Late January and early February 1966 - make it difficult for me to link him to the Beaumont kidnappings. Timing - Adelaide to Sydney , and age profile would be 2 areas I would dismiss him on

1. On Saturday, 29 January 1966, a 56-year old cleaning lady named Wilhelmina Kruger was killed in the Piccadilly Centre, on Crown Street in Wollongong.[24] Her bloodied body was discovered around 5:45 am at the foot of the basement-level stairs by a butcher who had arrived for work.[25][26] Having been first assaulted three floors above, probably around 4:30 am, she had been brutally dragged down the escalators and stairs. She was then strangled, stabbed, mutilated, and was found naked from the chest down. Police also found cigarette burns in her clothing,[27] and blond hair was found at the scene. In the time prior to the murder, Kruger had become nervous that someone was watching her, and had been driven to work by her partner.[17] Similarly, the lights in the car-park within the Centre had shown recent signs of tampering, and had been tampered with again on the morning of the murder. Considered one of the most brutal attacks in the history of the state,[17] the case remains unsolved.[28][29] Police believed that the murder might have been the work of the Wanda Beach killer, but would not say why.[30]
2. Around midnight on Wednesday, 16 February 1966, a 27-year old shop assistant and prostitute from Bondi named Anna Toskayoa Dowlingkoa went missing after leaving a nightclub in Kings Cross.[17] Ten days later, at around 5:30 pm on 26 February, her semi-naked, strangled, stabbed, and mutilated body was found by a truck driver, who had stopped at the side of Old Illawarra Road in Menai to change a tyre.[31] Most of her clothes and belongings were missing, and drag evidence showed that her body had been moved to a more visible location around 3–4 days prior to discovery.[17] Police immediately linked her brutal "Jack the Ripper-like murder" with that of Kruger,[31] and investigators from that crime were called in to assist. They believed that the murder might have been the work of the Wanda Beach killer,[32] primarily based on circumstantial evidence and MO similarities.

 

[BFew]

Inside Christopher Wilder's murderous spree across two countries

There's no doubt that Christopher Wilder was a brazen and cold serial killer. But just how many young women's lives did he cut short?

7news.com.au

The Snapshot Killer: Inside Christopher Wilder's murderous spree across two countries
Duncan McNab
Tuesday, 4 February 2020 5:14 pm

That hope now rests with rapidly developing forensic techniques that may find clues on the remaining crime scene exhibits – or the evidence of someone who has stayed quiet for a lifetime.
Still unsolved
“The case remains under the responsibility of the Homicide Squad’s Unsolved Homicide Unit and will be formally reviewed under the unit’s new processes in due course,” a NSW Police spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.
“As with all unsolved cases, we continue to appeal for information from the public.”

Not sure if there is anything new in this 3 months ago article.

 

[BFew]

Here's a March 2019 Australian published book on Wanda Beach murder potential killer Christopher Wilder.

The Snapshot Killer: The shocking true story of serial killer Christopher Wilder - from Sydney's beaches to America's Most Wanted by Duncan McNab - Books

<b>A chilling journey into the life and mind of charming and persuasive predator and serial killer Christopher Wilder, who murdered on two continents and evaded capture for over twenty years.</b>

www.hachette.com.au

The Snapshot Killer: The shocking true story of serial killer Christopher Wilder - from Sydney's beaches to America's Most Wanted eBook : McNab, Duncan: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

The Snapshot Killer: The shocking true story of serial killer Christopher Wilder - from Sydney's beaches to America's Most Wanted eBook : McNab, Duncan: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store

www.amazon.com.au

 

[johnymac1]

This is an age regression representation of Christopher Wilder at the time of the WB murders

View attachment 865847

Given Wilder is also a suspect in 2 Sydney murders in Late January and early February 1966 - make it difficult for me to link him to the Beaumont kidnappings. Timing - Adelaide to Sydney , and age profile would be 2 areas I would dismiss him on

1. On Saturday, 29 January 1966, a 56-year old cleaning lady named Wilhelmina Kruger was killed in the Piccadilly Centre, on Crown Street in Wollongong.[24] Her bloodied body was discovered around 5:45 am at the foot of the basement-level stairs by a butcher who had arrived for work.[25][26] Having been first assaulted three floors above, probably around 4:30 am, she had been brutally dragged down the escalators and stairs. She was then strangled, stabbed, mutilated, and was found naked from the chest down. Police also found cigarette burns in her clothing,[27] and blond hair was found at the scene. In the time prior to the murder, Kruger had become nervous that someone was watching her, and had been driven to work by her partner.[17] Similarly, the lights in the car-park within the Centre had shown recent signs of tampering, and had been tampered with again on the morning of the murder. Considered one of the most brutal attacks in the history of the state,[17] the case remains unsolved.[28][29] Police believed that the murder might have been the work of the Wanda Beach killer, but would not say why.[30]
2. Around midnight on Wednesday, 16 February 1966, a 27-year old shop assistant and prostitute from Bondi named Anna Toskayoa Dowlingkoa went missing after leaving a nightclub in Kings Cross.[17] Ten days later, at around 5:30 pm on 26 February, her semi-naked, strangled, stabbed, and mutilated body was found by a truck driver, who had stopped at the side of Old Illawarra Road in Menai to change a tyre.[31] Most of her clothes and belongings were missing, and drag evidence showed that her body had been moved to a more visible location around 3–4 days prior to discovery.[17] Police immediately linked her brutal "Jack the Ripper-like murder" with that of Kruger,[31] and investigators from that crime were called in to assist. They believed that the murder might have been the work of the Wanda Beach killer,[32] primarily based on circumstantial evidence and MO similarities.

I like your thinking. He would have been around 22yrs in Jan 1966.
He fits the description of a tall blonde athletic man. He seems a bit young for it, but has plenty of form for this kind of attack.
MO of snatching multiple victims, and driving to a secluded area.

 

[BFew]

Case nearly solved.
A review of the case imminent

NoCookies | The Australian

www.theaustralian.com.au

 

[BFew]

Could the Wanda Beach Murders finally be SOLVED?

Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt's bodies were discovered in the sand, near Cronulla in Sydney's south, on January 12, 1965.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Could the Wanda Beach murders finally be SOLVED? Paedophile who abused his own daughter and sister 'confessed' to a girlfriend that he killed two schoolgirls

In 1972 - seven years after the teenagers were bashed, stabbed and sexually assaulted - a young man allegedly confessed to the crime, The Australian reported. 'I did that,' he told his then-girlfriend.
The alleged confession came to light years later when the man was being investigated for sexually abusing his daughter.
The victim, now aged in her 40s, told police in 2016 she had been subject to abuse at the hands of her father from four until 11.
The victim's mother revealed to police her former husband claimed he was the Wanda Beach murderer when the couple first started dating.
'While we were sitting in his car, (he) turned to me and out of the blue asked me if I remembered the Wanda Beach murders … then said quite calmly words to the effect of 'I did that',' she told police.
The woman told police she felt 'startled' but thought he was making a joke. She responded with something like 'don't be silly, you did not'.
'(He) did not respond straight away but after looking at me and obviously seeing the startled expression on my face said something similar to ''Nah I didn't. I'm only kidding'',' she told police.
The woman also advised officers she believed her former husband is 'capable of anything'.
The man is now serving an eight year prison sentence for the sexual abuse of his daughter. The former car salesman was convicted in 2018.
The man's younger sister was one of two other women who also told police they were sexually abused by him as a child.
Police have reportedly been advised the convicted sex abuser went to the same school as Marianne - Marsden High School - and lived locally.
It's understood he enjoyed surfing as a teenager and frequently visited Sydney beaches including Cronulla.
The man cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter,
Marianne's brother Hans Schmidt said the revelation should lead to further investigations.
'Anything that would bring closure to the whole case would obviously be of great interest to the family,' Mr Schmidt said.
He said his brother Wolfgang remembered seeing a 'blond surfer guy' on the day of the teenager's murders.
NSW police declined to comment on the confession allegations when contacted by The Australian, adding that Homicide Squad detectives continue to appeal for public information.
Known as the 'Wanda murders', the case is the oldest under review by the NSW unsolved homicide unit.

 

[BFew]

Not much left of Wanda beach after a series of winter storms washed most of the sand away leaving house high cliffs of sand in the dunes where the water pounded away for many days in high winds and huge waves this winter.
Surf is just not there today.
Looking good for tomorrow though

Below is Wanda Beach a few minutes ago live on the shark watchout tower Webcam at Coastalwatch

The council webcam high quality full screen ad free feed is at

Play and explore | Sutherland Shire Council

Explore all Sutherland Shire has to offer from parks and beaches to sports and leisure, venues and events.

www.sutherlandshire.nsw.gov.au

Wanda Surf Report, Live Surf Cam & 16-Day Surf Forecast - Surfline

Get today's most accurate Wanda surf report with live HD surf cam for current swell, wind and wave conditions. With full written report (updated twice daily) and 16-day surf forecasts, so you can know before you go.

www.coastalwatch.com

 

[BFew]

Could the Wanda Beach Murders finally be SOLVED?

Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt's bodies were discovered in the sand, near Cronulla in Sydney's south, on January 12, 1965.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Could the Wanda Beach murders finally be SOLVED? Paedophile who abused his own daughter and sister 'confessed' to a girlfriend that he killed two schoolgirls

According to Bret Christian, Journlist and author of Stalking Claremont (Claremont Serial Killings), released this week, in his section on retired detective superintendent from Britain, Robin Napper who was working on the 1965 Wanda Beach murders just prior to heading to Perth with his family for a job at UWA, where he helped to start its Centre for Forensic Science and establish a forensic science course, attended by graduate students, lawyers and police, no culprit has been identified yet for the Wanda Beach murders.

I wonder if Bret is aware of the Sep 2020 developments on this case?

'In 1999, Napper discovered that the bathing costumes of the fifteen-year-olds, school friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, were still held in a police store. The clothing had never been DNA-tested, but a semen sample had been recovered and placed on a microscope slide.

The day before Napper was to retrieve the exhibits, a Sydney Sunday newspaper published a report that the case was being reopened with a search for the offender’s DNA. Then Napper received news that shocked him. He was told on the Monday morning that he was off the case; he would no longer have anything to do with it, and the exhibits were unavailable for testing. The families of the murdered teens have yet to see a culprit identified.

In Sydney, cold-case investigations were being shelved in favour of security work for the October 2000 Olympic Games.'

(Christian, Bret. Stalking Claremont (p. 153). ABC Books. Kindle Edition.)

 

[GreyCrow]

'In 1999, Napper discovered that the bathing costumes of the fifteen-year-olds, school friends Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, were still held in a police store. The clothing had never been DNA-tested, but a semen sample had been recovered and placed on a microscope slide.

The day before Napper was to retrieve the exhibits, a Sydney Sunday newspaper published a report that the case was being reopened with a search for the offender’s DNA. Then Napper received news that shocked him. He was told on the Monday morning that he was off the case; he would no longer have anything to do with it, and the exhibits were unavailable for testing. The families of the murdered teens have yet to see a culprit identified.

1. Who told the reporter?
2. Are the exhibits available today?

 

[BFew]

2. Are the exhibits available today?

A google search using "Wanda Beach DNA" quickly reveals a 7 year old article where NSW Police claim they lost the semen DNA evidence, and only refers to the testing of girls clothes continuing, apart from a more specific mention of Trace DNA on Christine's shorts that only 'indicated female DNA only'

and a 2012 article

DNA clue could solve 47 year-old Wanda Beach murders

A BLOOD spot may hold vital DNA evidence that could solve one of Sydney's most enduring mysteries.

www.news.com.au

'FEBRUARY 27, 2012
A BLOOD spot may hold vital DNA evidence that could solve one of Sydney's most enduring mysteries.
The blood, taken from the scene of the Wanda Beach murders 47 years ago, belongs to an unknown male and was gleaned from crime scene boxes after cold case detectives revisited the case.
Now police hope new testing methods will give them a fuller profile and provide a breakthrough in the case.'

'A button and zipper were removed from one of the victim's shorts and a sub sample sent to New Zealand for DNA testing but the profile which came back belonged to one of the victims.
Surprised that DNA profiles could still be obtained from a sample so many years old, officers decided to test a blood mark on the shorts that could be a knife wipe mark. A weak male profile was found.'

Double killing DNA sample lost

www.smh.com.au

By Anne-Louise Brown
July 3, 2014 — 5.56pm

'The identity of the Wanda Beach killer may never be revealed through scientific means after it was revealed a DNA sample taken from one of the victims almost 50 years ago has been “lost”.
Police told The Sun-Herald the semen sample, which holds the DNA profile of the person who brutally r*ped and killed West Ryde teenagers Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock in January 1965, was listed as an exhibit but, despite exhaustive searches of the Glebe forensic laboratories where it was housed, had not been located.
The DNA was taken from Marianne at the time.
The head of the NSW Unsolved Homicides Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Lehmann, said after a search,“not a trace'' of the sample had been found.
He said testing of the girls’ clothes was continuing and he believed the key to solving the case was still through the physical evidence.
“Trace DNA was detected (on Christine’s shorts) but it was very old and degraded. It only indicated female DNA , probably Christine’s,” Chief Inspector Lehmann said.
“There is an indication of male DNA but it has not been definitively identified as yet. We just have to keep on re-examining all the available evidence as the science improves.”
Chief Inspector Lehmann described the initial investigation into the Wanda Beach murders as “exhaustive”, with more than 14,000 people interviewed. About 5000 persons of interest were identified, some of whom are still alive.
In 2007, Inspector Ian Waterson, was appointed head of the now-disbanded NSW police Cold Case Justice Project, and was directed by Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione to review the Wanda Beach murders.
Mr Waterson, who is now retired, said the loss of the semen sample had been a major blow to the case and, if found, could be the key to solving it.
One of the key suspects in the girls’ killings was Australia’s longest serving prisoner, child killer Derek Percy, who has also been implicated in another infamous cold case, the murder of the Beaumont children in Adelaide.
Percy died in prison in 2013.
Mr Waterson, however, believes the man who killed Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock was serial killer Christopher Wilder.
Wilder is best known for abducting, raping and brutally murdering at least eight women in the US during a cross-country murder spree lasting six weeks in 1984. He is suspected of killing another six.
The son of an American naval officer and Australian mother, Wilder immigrated to the US in 1969 after pleading guilty to a gang rape at a Sydney beach in 1962.
“He (Wilder) was mentioned in the case files. He has a good resemblance to one of the ‘suspect’ sketches at the time and continued on a life of rape and murder in the States before being shot and killed with his own gun,” Mr Waterson said.
Mr Waterson said to prove his theory on Wilder a full DNA profile would need to be obtained from the evidence, which could then be compared with the DNA of one of Wilder’s male relatives or a sample taken from his brain, which has been preserved in the US.
“That would be the start of the re-investigation,” he said.
“A full brief would have to be prepared and submitted to the Coroner to make a finding but a DNA match would be a heads-up start.”'

 

[BFew]

1. Who told the reporter?

The 38 pages long Notes and Sources section of Bret Christian's 'Stalking Claremont' book released 3 days ago, has 2 pages of Noted and Sources on it's Chapter 18: Napper, which includes the below sole source media article about the Wanda Beach Murders.

Murder case to be reopened after 35 years: ‘DNA bid to solve Wanda Beach murders’, Warren Owens, The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), January 4, 2000.
(Christian, Bret. Stalking Claremont (p.370). ABC Books. Kindle Edition.)

Good luck to finding this 21 year old article online.
It might only be available via State Library archives.

 

[BFew]

Case nearly solved.
A review of the case imminent

And here we are 4 months later and still waiting.

Maybe because the current suspect is already incarcerated, and there are the complexities of child sex abuse related to the suspects other known and alleged crimes, we are going to need to be patient for the resolution of this old cold NSW case.

 

[Kurve]

And here we are 4 months later and still waiting.

Maybe because the current suspect is already incarcerated, and there are the complexities of child sex abuse related to the suspects other known and alleged crimes, we are going to need to be patient for the resolution of this old cold NSW case.

I'd love to see this solved, with a host of others of course but this one given Derek Percy and Christopher Wilder have been suggested as POI, it would be interesting to know if it was one of them.

Well, even if they are dead and someone else who I assume we never heard of is in the frame for it.

 

[X_box_X]

The thing I keep coming back to is why Wilder would kill in 1965 and then not kill again until the early 1980s (at least that we know of).

All of his known crimes from the late 60s to early 80s escalated, but none of those known crimes had ended in murder.

It would be unusual to go from killing to petty crimes to rape to kidnapping and sexual battery and then to murder.

 

[BFew]

2. Are the exhibits available today?

According to the below, in 2018 they still had the clothes including swimming costumes.
I hope those do not go missing too!



From about the 42:25 mark in the above 10 June 2018 Ch7 True Stories video there are shots of reenacted or actual swimming costume artefacts from the 2 murdered girls.

Here's my transcription of this section where the mystery of why the DNA from the clothing has not yet solved the crimes is discussed.
No mention of the 2014 announced missing semen evidence mentioned in this vid though.

'Michael Usher: Interviewer
"'the cold case in NSW hasn't been touched in a decade
And critical evidence sitting in archive lies untested
We're in the day and age of DNA solving so many unsolved crimes.
Why hasn't DNA helped solve the Wanda beach murders?"'

'Ian Waterson (Retired NSW Detective Inspector)
"Well I wouldn't say it hasn't yet.
We're still working on it.
We still have the girls costumes
There's still a strong possibility, I'm hoping in the very near future it will solve the case for us."'

'Dr Xanthe Mallett Criminologist
"I absolutely think they should go back to that clothing. Back to those files.
And if they can get any DNA, run it.
You know we've got a great shot at solving this.
We're never going to have a better one.
Technology is available. Let's use it.
Let's see if we can't solve this at last"'

 

[BFew]

How come someone with Wilder's form was allowed to travel between Australia and the US?
Was his father being an American naval officer (non-commissioned = one who took orders as opposed to gave orders) possibly anything to do with this?

Is anything more known about this Wilder father son/relationship?

Inside Christopher Wilder's murderous spree across two countries

There's no doubt that Christopher Wilder was a brazen and cold serial killer. But just how many young women's lives did he cut short?

7news.com.au

'son of a US Navy non-commissioned officer and his Australian wife.
His early years were spent in naval bases around the United States and South East Asia, returning to Ryde in Sydney’s inner north-west, after his father retired.'

Christopher Wilder - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

'Early life
Christopher Wilder was born on March 13, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,[1] the son of an American naval officer and an Australian national. Wilder nearly died at birth, and almost drowned in a swimming pool at the age of two.[2] On January 4, 1963, he r*ped a 13-year old girl in company with two other young men, both of whom denied being involved in the actual assault. Wilder was sentenced to probation'

Wilder married in 1968, but his wife left him after one week. He emigrated to the United States in 1969'

'While visiting his parents in Australia in 1982, Wilder was charged with sexual offenses against two 15-year-old girls whom he had forced to pose nude. His parents posted bail and he was allowed to return to Florida to await trial, but court delays prevented his case from ever being heard, as the eventual initial hearing date of April 1984 came after his death.'

 

[johnymac1]

How come someone with Wilder's form was allowed to travel between Australia and the US?
Was his father being an American naval officer (non-commissioned = one who took orders as opposed to gave orders) possibly anything to do with this?

Is anything more known about this Wilder father son/relationship?

Inside Christopher Wilder's murderous spree across two countries

There's no doubt that Christopher Wilder was a brazen and cold serial killer. But just how many young women's lives did he cut short?

7news.com.au

'son of a US Navy non-commissioned officer and his Australian wife.
His early years were spent in naval bases around the United States and South East Asia, returning to Ryde in Sydney’s inner north-west, after his father retired.'

Christopher Wilder - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

'Early life
Christopher Wilder was born on March 13, 1945, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia,[1] the son of an American naval officer and an Australian national. Wilder nearly died at birth, and almost drowned in a swimming pool at the age of two.[2] On January 4, 1963, he r*ped a 13-year old girl in company with two other young men, both of whom denied being involved in the actual assault. Wilder was sentenced to probation'

Wilder married in 1968, but his wife left him after one week. He emigrated to the United States in 1969'

'While visiting his parents in Australia in 1982, Wilder was charged with sexual offenses against two 15-year-old girls whom he had forced to pose nude. His parents posted bail and he was allowed to return to Florida to await trial, but court delays prevented his case from ever being heard, as the eventual initial hearing date of April 1984 came after his death.'

Netfix has a four part doco on him, aka the "beauty queen killer"

 

[GreyCrow]

I'd love to see this solved, with a host of others of course but this one given Derek Percy and Christopher Wilder have been suggested as POI, it would be interesting to know if it was one of them.

Well, even if they are dead and someone else who I assume we never heard of is in the frame for it.

The post above yours explains a suspect

Linked to the newspaper report ''my boyfriend confessed''

 

[BFew]

Netfix has a four part doco on him, aka the "beauty queen killer"

I'll have to check it out.

 

[GreyCrow]

The thing I keep coming back to is why Wilder would kill in 1965 and then not kill again until the early 1980s (at least that we know of).

All of his known crimes from the late 60s to early 80s escalated, but none of those known crimes had ended in murder.

It would be unusual to go from killing to petty crimes to rape to kidnapping and sexual battery and then to murder.

Its a good question to ask

Authorities did try and link a 1973 double homicide to him but DNA later ruled him out - a body was found on or near his property with a presumed DoD of one victim to 1979

The victimology of his later victims and likeness is the main reason Wilder is looked at for WB