Latest / The conspiracy / The HORRIFYING Case Of Mr. Cruel

Transcript

The HORRIFYING Case Of Mr. Cruel · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: Mister Kruele is the moniker for an unidentified Australian serial
0:04
Speaker 1: child and who attacked three girls in the northern and
0:08
Speaker 1: eastern suburbs of Melbourne in the late nineteen eighties and
0:11
Speaker 1: early nineteen nineties. Police suspected that mister Krule may have
0:15
Speaker 1: been responsible for at least a dozen other heinous attacks
0:18
Speaker 1: on children over a ten year period. They believe that
0:21
Speaker 1: he would have committed a number of minor offenses as well,
0:24
Speaker 1: such as stealing underwear from washing lines to touching himself
0:28
Speaker 1: while window peeping before graduating to abduction and Mister Krule
0:33
Speaker 1: was also suspected of abducting a fourteen year old girl
0:36
Speaker 1: from her Hampton home in Melbourne's southern suburbs in nineteen
0:39
Speaker 1: eighty five. Bound gagged and blindfolded, the girl was taken
0:43
Speaker 1: to a vacant lot and several hours later, scared and scarred,
0:47
Speaker 1: the girl's body was dumped at Moorabin Bowl on the
0:50
Speaker 1: Nepean Highway. His four most significant crimes involved the abduction
0:54
Speaker 1: and of three young girls, and the fourth being a murder.
0:58
Speaker 1: But despite the number of crimes that mister Krule was
1:01
Speaker 1: believed to have partaken in, he's never been caught, despite
1:05
Speaker 1: the loads of information provided by key witnesses and the investigation.
1:09
Speaker 2: Into who he was.
1:10
Speaker 1: Today, we will be looking at mister Krule's profile, his
1:13
Speaker 1: four main victims, the investigations into his abductions, the primary suspects,
1:18
Speaker 1: and finally inconsistencies that lie among the years of prolific
1:22
Speaker 1: information on this Australian serial killer on today's episode of
1:26
Speaker 1: The Conspiracy Files. All Right, everybody, so, I've wanted to
1:36
Speaker 1: do this episode for a very long time. Mister Krule
1:39
Speaker 1: has always deeply captivated me. The sketch, the evidence, the
1:44
Speaker 1: sketch is just one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.
1:47
Speaker 1: And this guy was targeting children for an extended period
1:50
Speaker 1: of time and he was never caught. And this happened
1:54
Speaker 1: a decent while ago, but not long enough that the
1:57
Speaker 1: person would most.
1:58
Speaker 2: Likely be dead.
1:59
Speaker 1: So well, who knows, I mean, especially if you live
2:02
Speaker 1: in Australia, mister Krule could be your neighbor. He could
2:05
Speaker 1: be in a retirement home right now, being fed by
2:07
Speaker 1: a nurse, you know, wheeled around, having a great.
2:10
Speaker 2: End to his life.
2:11
Speaker 1: And as time goes on with all of these cases,
2:14
Speaker 1: as we always talk about here on the show, the
2:16
Speaker 1: likelihood that these crimes are going to be solved just
2:19
Speaker 1: keeps on decreasing, and with the criminal that was as
2:22
Speaker 1: smart as mister Krule and as deliberate, I don't know
2:25
Speaker 1: if this will ever be truly solved, but I do
2:28
Speaker 1: have to say that this is an incredibly disturbing case.
2:31
Speaker 1: So listener and viewer discretion is advised. Please be sure
2:34
Speaker 1: if you're watching the show on YouTube to leave me
2:37
Speaker 1: a comment and like the video because that helps boost
2:39
Speaker 1: the video. Please watch it all the way through, and
2:42
Speaker 1: if you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please be
2:45
Speaker 1: sure to leave me a five star review because I
2:47
Speaker 1: love hearing from you guys. I love the community that
2:50
Speaker 1: we're building here, and yeah, it just helps the show
2:52
Speaker 1: so much. Without further ado, I want to thank Rebecca Whitworth.
2:56
Speaker 1: If everybody could thank Rebecca for her work and helping
2:58
Speaker 1: bring this story to you. Guys. Let's talk about mister Krule.
3:02
Speaker 1: But before we get into mister Krule and who this
3:04
Speaker 1: unidentified man could be, we need to talk about his
3:07
Speaker 1: crimes and his victims. The first crime and victim attributed
3:11
Speaker 1: to mister Krule is known as Jane Doe Jane Doe
3:15
Speaker 1: was only eleven when this happened to her. So on
3:18
Speaker 1: August twenty second, nineteen eighty seven, a man wearing a
3:21
Speaker 1: balaklava with that kind of creepy stitching on it, broke
3:24
Speaker 1: into a family home in Lower Plenty, Victoria at four
3:28
Speaker 1: in the morning, armed with a knife and a handgun.
3:30
Speaker 1: By removing a pane of glass from the living room window,
3:33
Speaker 1: this man, mister Krule, forced Jane Doe's parents onto their stomachs,
3:38
Speaker 1: tied their hands and feet behind them, and locked them
3:41
Speaker 1: both in the wardrobe of the house. Mister Crule then
3:43
Speaker 1: tied up the couple's six year old son to his
3:46
Speaker 1: bed using surgical tape, and then proceeded to the eleven
3:50
Speaker 1: year old girl known as Jane Doe. Additionally, mister Krule
3:53
Speaker 1: had cut the phone lines to the house and when
3:56
Speaker 1: he left, he took a few vinyl records in a
3:58
Speaker 1: blue coat, but left no clues behind.
4:01
Speaker 2: The victim to this.
4:02
Speaker 1: Day has never been publicly identified, and according to a
4:05
Speaker 1: crime story Matt produced on Amazon Web Services, mister Krule
4:09
Speaker 1: said the following things to Jane Doe's parents. He stated,
4:13
Speaker 1: be quiet and don't move, or I'll hurt someone, get
4:16
Speaker 1: into the wardrobe and sit down. Get into the closet
4:18
Speaker 1: and kneel down. All I want is money, food and clothes.
4:21
Speaker 1: How much money is in the house. And in addition,
4:24
Speaker 1: he said to the eleven year old girl, the victim,
4:27
Speaker 1: what's your name? How old are you? Clean your teeth?
4:30
Speaker 1: I'm going out now, so count to one hundred slowly,
4:32
Speaker 1: then you can free your parents. So nothing really incriminating
4:36
Speaker 1: there and nothing left behind. Something you're going to see
4:39
Speaker 1: in this case that is major is this guy was
4:41
Speaker 1: incredibly intelligent. He left behind no trace of himself. There
4:45
Speaker 1: was no DNA, there were no footprints ever left. There
4:48
Speaker 1: was literally nothing. This guy was in and out with
4:51
Speaker 1: surgical precision. Now we arrive at mister Krule's second victim,
4:55
Speaker 1: ten year old Sharon Wills. Sharon Wills, was kidnapped from
4:59
Speaker 1: her Hillcrest Aveage New home in Ringwood, Victoria, at about
5:02
Speaker 1: four point fifty in the morning on December twenty seventh,
5:05
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight. That morning, mister Krule broke into the
5:08
Speaker 1: family's home via the back door, wearing that same balid
5:11
Speaker 1: clava and armed with a handgun kind of the same
5:14
Speaker 1: thing that he did with his first victim. He also
5:16
Speaker 1: immediately bound and gagged the young girl's parents and demanded
5:20
Speaker 1: money from them, and finally he grabbed ten year old Sharon,
5:23
Speaker 1: put tape over her eyes and a ballgag in her mouth,
5:26
Speaker 1: and abducted her. Before leaving the house, though, mister Kruhle
5:29
Speaker 1: stopped and collected a few items of Sharon's clothing and
5:33
Speaker 1: then proceeded to take her to an unknown location. They
5:36
Speaker 1: still don't know where he took her to this day,
5:38
Speaker 1: to which Sharon later recalled details of, saying she believed
5:41
Speaker 1: that she was held somewhere in the Tullamarine Airport flight path.
5:45
Speaker 2: Again.
5:46
Speaker 1: An Amazon's story map reported mister Krule as saying the
5:49
Speaker 1: following to Sharon's father, You're not going to be a hero,
5:52
Speaker 1: are you? And he also said to Sharon, You're going
5:55
Speaker 1: to have a shower. You have to wash yourself really
5:57
Speaker 1: good and brush your teeth. Weird upset with teeth that
6:01
Speaker 1: this guy had. That's something you'll see throughout all of
6:03
Speaker 1: these cases. Sharon gave her description of what occurred next
6:06
Speaker 1: in the following statement. When she was dry, the offender
6:10
Speaker 1: dressed Sharon Wills in the shirt he had taken from
6:12
Speaker 1: the basket in the will's family lounge room and put
6:15
Speaker 1: her inside two garbage bags. He pulled the bottom garbage
6:18
Speaker 1: bag up to her neck and taped it to her shoulders,
6:21
Speaker 1: while he put the other one over her head and
6:23
Speaker 1: taped it to her waist. Then he made a hole
6:25
Speaker 1: in the bag so that she could breathe, before carrying
6:28
Speaker 1: her to a car and placing her on the floor
6:30
Speaker 1: in front of the front passenger seat. The car wouldn't
6:33
Speaker 1: start at first, and as the offender, mister Krule, struggled
6:36
Speaker 1: to start it up, he told Sharon that quote stolen
6:39
Speaker 1: vehicles do not always start properly.
6:41
Speaker 2: End quote. Once he had the.
6:42
Speaker 1: Car started, he reversed it out of the driveway and
6:45
Speaker 1: drove for what Sharon described as a long time, sometimes fast,
6:49
Speaker 1: sometimes slow. After some time, mister Krule stopped the vehicle,
6:53
Speaker 1: got out, and lifted Sharon out of the car with
6:56
Speaker 1: the garbage bags still on her. He then began jogging
6:59
Speaker 1: while carrying Sharon, stopping now and then to put her
7:02
Speaker 1: down while he rested. After an unstated period of time,
7:05
Speaker 1: the man put Sharon down end quote told her how
7:08
Speaker 1: to get to a nearby food plus store end quote.
7:11
Speaker 1: The offender then removed the garbage bags and blindfold and
7:14
Speaker 1: told Sharon not to look at him as he left.
7:17
Speaker 1: She was released eighteen hours later near the grounds of
7:20
Speaker 1: Bayswater High School and was found later walking along Orchard
7:24
Speaker 1: Road in the nearby suburb of Bayswater, traumatized but still alive,
7:28
Speaker 1: dressed in the garbage bags. On July third, nineteen ninety,
7:32
Speaker 1: in Canterbury, Victoria, mister Crule broke into a family home
7:36
Speaker 1: at around eleven thirty pm, armed with a knife and
7:38
Speaker 1: a gun and wearing once again that balaklava with that
7:42
Speaker 1: very distinct stitching. The victim this evening would be Nicola Linis.
7:46
Speaker 1: Nicola's parents were at a party at the time, and
7:49
Speaker 1: Nicola and her sister were rudely awakened that evening by
7:53
Speaker 1: the monster that was mister Krule as he broke into
7:56
Speaker 1: their house. Immediately, mister Crule tied up the sister before
7:59
Speaker 1: four Nicola to fine her school uniform. Then he tied
8:03
Speaker 1: and gagged thirteen year old Nichola Linus, placed tape over
8:06
Speaker 1: her eyes, disabled the phones in the house, and searched
8:09
Speaker 1: for any money he could find. He then stole Nikola's
8:12
Speaker 1: parents car and drove her around the block before putting
8:15
Speaker 1: her into a second car, where he then drove her
8:18
Speaker 1: to another house and pressed her for fifty hours. At
8:21
Speaker 1: least five different times he the thirteen year old girl
8:25
Speaker 1: before he eventually released her at a power substation in
8:29
Speaker 1: the suburb of q Nicola was fully clothed and wrapped
8:32
Speaker 1: in a blanket with tape over her eyes when she
8:34
Speaker 1: was eventually found. She later told authorities that she could
8:37
Speaker 1: hear aircraft from the house where she had been held
8:40
Speaker 1: a captive. Additionally, she told authorities that he had dressed
8:43
Speaker 1: her in a school uniform and her tennis skirt during
8:46
Speaker 1: two of the She also shared with authorities that mister
8:49
Speaker 1: Krule had told her he had a schoolgirl fantasy. Mister
8:53
Speaker 1: Crule supposedly gave Nichola similar instructions, telling her to clean
8:57
Speaker 1: herself thoroughly and brush her teeth, but unlike the other
9:01
Speaker 1: two victims, mister Krule gave her instructions for her release, saying,
9:05
Speaker 1: you think you're worth twenty five thousand dollars, you will
9:07
Speaker 1: get home. You will be home by late Thursday evening
9:09
Speaker 1: early Friday morning. I'll drop you off at a place
9:12
Speaker 1: and change your clothes and you have to wait for
9:14
Speaker 1: ten minutes and then you can walk to a police station.
9:16
Speaker 1: I'll give you directions to the police station. When you
9:18
Speaker 1: get back, the police will ask you a lot of questions.
9:21
Speaker 2: Really bizarre.
9:21
Speaker 1: So he's so brazen actually that he's dropping the victims
9:25
Speaker 1: off and saying, walk to the police station. I'll give
9:27
Speaker 1: you the directions. They'll ask you a lot of questions.
9:29
Speaker 1: Tell him exactly what happened. And that's how confident this
9:32
Speaker 1: guy was that he would never be caught. And he's
9:34
Speaker 1: a serial. This is the third child under the age
9:39
Speaker 1: of fourteen that he is repeatedly and violently and he's
9:43
Speaker 1: gotten away with all of it.
9:44
Speaker 2: Now.
9:44
Speaker 1: According to Keith Moore's twenty sixteen articles, citing information found
9:49
Speaker 1: in a dossier, he noted that quote mister Krule told
9:53
Speaker 1: Nikola he had followed her from school. Additionally, it's cited
9:56
Speaker 1: that quote mister Krule would have been aware mister and
9:59
Speaker 1: missus Linus were attending regular farewell functions with different work
10:03
Speaker 1: and social groups.
10:05
Speaker 2: Now.
10:05
Speaker 1: Nikola later reported to investigators that mister Krule had tried
10:09
Speaker 1: really hard to convince her that he was out of
10:11
Speaker 1: the state during.
10:12
Speaker 2: The Will's attack.
10:13
Speaker 1: Saying, I don't know if it was true, but I
10:15
Speaker 1: do know he wanted me to believe it. But at
10:17
Speaker 1: this point, mister Krule took a dark and disturbing turn.
10:21
Speaker 1: On April thirteenth, nineteen ninety one, thirteen year old Carmen
10:24
Speaker 1: Chan was taken from her sprawling, eighteen room home in Templestowe, Victoria,
10:29
Speaker 1: a house that was secured by a two meter fence
10:32
Speaker 1: and electrical gates. The break in happened at around eight
10:35
Speaker 1: forty pm, and the man that broke into the house
10:38
Speaker 1: was wearing a balaklava and was armed with a knife.
10:41
Speaker 1: We can assume this was mister Kruhle. That evening, Carmen's
10:44
Speaker 1: parents were working at the family's Chinese restaurant. But mister
10:47
Speaker 1: Krule knew that. Remember it's a known fact that he
10:50
Speaker 1: would surveil his victims for days, even weeks before attacking them,
10:54
Speaker 1: so he would have studied this family's patterns. He would
10:57
Speaker 1: have been sitting outside of their home waiting to see
11:00
Speaker 1: see Carmen's parents leave the house. He would have known
11:02
Speaker 1: exactly when mister and missus Chan had left the property.
11:06
Speaker 1: After breaking into the house, mister Krule confronted Carmen in
11:09
Speaker 1: the kitchen, grabbed her by her hair, and slammed a
11:12
Speaker 1: bed against the door to trap her two sisters in
11:14
Speaker 1: their room. He additionally told her two little sisters to
11:17
Speaker 1: get in a nearby cupboard before he grabbed Carmen and
11:21
Speaker 1: abducted her. Before leaving the house, mister Kruhle left a
11:24
Speaker 1: red herring at the home, spray painting missus Chan's car
11:27
Speaker 1: with the words payback Asian drug dealer and more to come.
11:31
Speaker 1: Immediately after the disappearance of Carmen, taken right out of
11:35
Speaker 1: her own home, the town of Templestowe held a press
11:38
Speaker 1: conference with Carmen's parents pleading for her return. Over a
11:42
Speaker 1: year later, Carman's body was found at the intersection of
11:45
Speaker 1: Mahoney's Road and High Street, Thomastown, Victoria. Nowadays, investigators believe
11:51
Speaker 1: Carmen was killed because she had either seen her abductor's
11:54
Speaker 1: face or because he feared at that point the child
11:57
Speaker 1: could somehow identify him. Her top he revealed that she
12:01
Speaker 1: had died from three bullet wounds to the back of
12:03
Speaker 1: the head, and that her body had been lain at
12:05
Speaker 1: the sight of her discovery for approximately twelve months. Her
12:09
Speaker 1: body had been there for about a full year, almost
12:12
Speaker 1: right after the initial attack, and her murder in nineteen
12:15
Speaker 1: ninety one marked the end of mister Krule's reign of terror.
12:19
Speaker 1: After this, he fell off the radar, but some had
12:22
Speaker 1: doubts whether that crime was committed by mister Krule or not.
12:25
Speaker 1: On May sixteenth, nineteen ninety two, following a service at
12:29
Speaker 1: the Boleene Baptist Church officiated by the Reverend Bill McFarlane,
12:33
Speaker 1: Carmen was laid to rest and her funeral was attended
12:36
Speaker 1: by over eight hundred mourners. In twenty thirteen, Detective Chris
12:39
Speaker 1: O'Connor answered a journalist's question about whether he believed mister
12:44
Speaker 1: Krule was responsible, saying, we just don't know if it
12:47
Speaker 1: was mister Krule who murdered Carmen. We just can't be
12:49
Speaker 1: sure because there isn't enough evidence to make a value
12:52
Speaker 1: judgment about whether it was or wasn't him in the
12:55
Speaker 1: Carmen case. Additionally, they noted the execution style method of
12:59
Speaker 1: murder as being indicative of a crime of retribution as
13:03
Speaker 1: opposed to a motivated murder. In April twenty sixteen, twenty
13:07
Speaker 1: five years after the death of Carmen, Chan Victoria police
13:11
Speaker 1: increased the reward from one hundred thousand to one million
13:14
Speaker 1: bucks for information that led to the perpetrator's arrest and conviction.
13:19
Speaker 1: Authorities invested nearly four million dollars in the investigation to
13:23
Speaker 1: try to catch mister Krule. Up to forty investigators interviewed
13:27
Speaker 1: twenty seven thousand suspects, checked thirty thousand homes, and arrested
13:31
Speaker 1: more than seventy people, but to this very day, they've
13:35
Speaker 1: never been able to identify the perpetrator. Mister Krule was
13:38
Speaker 1: believed to have videotaped or perhaps taken still photographs of
13:42
Speaker 1: his attacks, most likely so he could revisit those sick memories.
13:45
Speaker 1: Detectives believe that if mister Krule is still alive, he
13:49
Speaker 1: will have kept those tapes and or photos and will
13:51
Speaker 1: still collect and possibly swap. Detectives say that he almost
13:57
Speaker 1: certainly continues to collect through the Internet and may communicate
14:01
Speaker 1: with children using chat rooms or chat lines. It was
14:04
Speaker 1: stated that mister Kruele meticulously planned as crimes, citing a
14:08
Speaker 1: specific example in which he had told Nikolalinis that he
14:11
Speaker 1: would release her in exactly fifty hours, which he did.
14:15
Speaker 1: He bathed his victims carefully, with one victim describing the
14:18
Speaker 1: act like a mother washing a baby and another saying
14:21
Speaker 1: he was quite caring, trimming her toenails and fingernails. Additionally,
14:25
Speaker 1: in two of the cases, he took a second set
14:27
Speaker 1: of clothes from the girl's home to dress them before
14:30
Speaker 1: they were freed. The motive was the same in all
14:32
Speaker 1: three of the attacks, possibly four, and the victim's statements
14:35
Speaker 1: provided confirmation to the police that it was actually the
14:38
Speaker 1: same offender. The authorities established the Spectrum Task Force in
14:41
Speaker 1: May of nineteen ninety one after Carmen's body was found,
14:44
Speaker 1: dedicated exclusively to catching mister Kruhle. Like I said before,
14:48
Speaker 1: that task force searched thirty thousand homes and interviewed twenty
14:51
Speaker 1: seven thousand suspects at the cost of three point eight
14:55
Speaker 1: million dollars. There was even a reward of three hundred
14:58
Speaker 1: thousand bucks offered by the police for any information that
15:01
Speaker 1: would lead to the arrest and conviction of mister Kruhle,
15:03
Speaker 1: and that infamous reward poster that you've seen many times
15:06
Speaker 1: by now was distributed in nineteen ninety one to all
15:09
Speaker 1: Victorian homes and in certain areas in South Australia and
15:13
Speaker 1: New South Wales. In fact, huge posters were even placed
15:16
Speaker 1: in public places like bus stops and grocery stores in
15:19
Speaker 1: the hopes that somebody would recognize who this guy was,
15:22
Speaker 1: but unfortunately no leads were ever generated and the task
15:26
Speaker 1: Force was officially disbanded by January of nineteen ninety four.
15:30
Speaker 1: The Task Force investigated earlier crimes from nineteen eighty five
15:34
Speaker 1: to nineteen eighty seven that had similarities to the Mister
15:37
Speaker 1: Kruel crimes, but they couldn't locate any witness statements or
15:40
Speaker 1: crime scene exhibits, and that included the tape and rope
15:43
Speaker 1: used to tie the victims.
15:45
Speaker 2: There was just no evidence.
15:46
Speaker 1: The head of the Spectrum Task Force, Dale Sprague, said
15:49
Speaker 1: that some exhibits had not been examined by forensics and
15:52
Speaker 1: had been lost or thrown out. The police established the
15:56
Speaker 1: Spectrum Task Force unit after a review into the effectiveness
15:59
Speaker 1: of the investigations by their Investigation and Evaluation Group found
16:04
Speaker 1: that they needed a more coordinated and professional approach to
16:07
Speaker 1: investigations now. On December fourteenth, twenty ten, the police announced
16:12
Speaker 1: that the Apollo Task Force had been established about eight
16:15
Speaker 1: months earlier, following substantial new intelligence. The new task force
16:19
Speaker 1: had been reviewing both the Spectrum Task Force investigation and
16:22
Speaker 1: some new leads that had surfaced in the last year
16:24
Speaker 1: or so. The Apollo Task Force, though, closed down in
16:27
Speaker 1: June of twenty thirteen after finding out that that new
16:30
Speaker 1: intelligence wasn't credible, ruling out the suspect.
16:33
Speaker 2: But now for a second, we have to talk.
16:35
Speaker 1: About mister Kruhle and the things that he did and
16:38
Speaker 1: the things that we know that he did. So check
16:40
Speaker 1: this out. Here are some just some things that we
16:42
Speaker 1: know about this guy. So the Melbourne Police described mister
16:46
Speaker 1: Krule as being highly intelligent. The twenty twenty three article
16:50
Speaker 1: in The Daily Mail noted that mister Krule's brazen attacks
16:53
Speaker 1: were so meticulously planned and committed in such a calculated
16:57
Speaker 1: fashion that he was initially known as mister Cool. He
17:01
Speaker 1: was soft spoken and his behavior was unhurried. During one
17:04
Speaker 1: of the attacks, he even took a break in a
17:06
Speaker 1: victim's house to eat a meal.
17:08
Speaker 2: But who was he?
17:09
Speaker 1: Investigators told us many attributes of mister Cruhle's profile over
17:13
Speaker 1: the years, listing the following appearance. Mister Krule was described
17:17
Speaker 1: as being an Australian male in his mid twenties to
17:20
Speaker 1: early thirties, with a height ranging from approximately one hundred
17:23
Speaker 1: and seventy centimeters to one hundred and eighty three centimeters
17:26
Speaker 1: and a build varying from slim to well built, potentially
17:30
Speaker 1: with the slight stomach. He had brown or graying hair,
17:33
Speaker 1: with hair that was sometimes described as having white spots.
17:36
Speaker 1: He also may have had bushy, grayish slash white eyebrows.
17:39
Speaker 1: His facial hair was noted as either being unshaven with
17:42
Speaker 1: a few days of growth, a mustache, or showing early
17:46
Speaker 1: beard growth. He additionally was noted as having hairy arms,
17:49
Speaker 1: possibly a hairy chest, rough hands, and short fingernails, with
17:53
Speaker 1: no noticeable body odor. He was consistently noted as being
17:56
Speaker 1: right handed and wore a dark ski mask or ball
17:59
Speaker 1: of clav with white and red stitching around the eye
18:02
Speaker 1: and mouth holes to prevent himself from revealing too many
18:05
Speaker 1: facial features. An interview with a witness who had come
18:08
Speaker 1: forward in twenty twenty two provided similar characteristics to that description.
18:13
Speaker 2: Take a look.
18:14
Speaker 3: Description of what he was wearing was a long flannelet,
18:17
Speaker 3: kind of baggy, light geane, very unkept. He didn't look
18:23
Speaker 3: like he took care of himself, very unfit, very unclean,
18:27
Speaker 3: bit overweight, So he had a belly round on the face,
18:32
Speaker 3: bolting on top, kind of long sides, and his hair
18:36
Speaker 3: was like a medium brown, very pale skin.
18:40
Speaker 1: But what forensic knowledge do we know about this guy?
18:42
Speaker 1: Mister Krule went to great lengths to avoid leaving behind
18:46
Speaker 1: any forensic evidence that detectives could use to catch him.
18:49
Speaker 1: He bathed two of his victims to remove DNA evidence.
18:52
Speaker 1: He even went as far as to lay a sheet
18:54
Speaker 1: on the linoleum covered floor to avoid leaving fingerprints. He
18:58
Speaker 1: transported victims to the release sights in garbage bags, and
19:02
Speaker 1: he made his victims brush their teeth and clean their
19:04
Speaker 1: nails after he attacked them. There was no DNA ever
19:07
Speaker 1: left at any of his crime scenes or on any
19:10
Speaker 1: of his victims. And finally, he even told victim Nicololinus,
19:14
Speaker 1: you will be taken to a hospital and they will
19:17
Speaker 1: test you. You will be examined by a police surgeon.
19:20
Speaker 1: They'll be looking for evidence to link me to you,
19:22
Speaker 1: and they won't find anything.
19:24
Speaker 2: How did he find his victims?
19:26
Speaker 1: How did he get into these places and how did
19:28
Speaker 1: he get out? Well, it was believed that mister Kruhle's
19:30
Speaker 1: house itself was located under one of two main flight
19:33
Speaker 1: paths into the Tullamarine Airport. Two different victims reported to
19:37
Speaker 1: the police that they could hear planes landing after they
19:40
Speaker 1: passed over the location they were being held at. An
19:43
Speaker 1: investigation into flights operating that day determined the likely location
19:47
Speaker 1: of the property as being under either the Tullamarine East
19:51
Speaker 1: West or North South flight paths Spectrum Task Force had
19:55
Speaker 1: David Sprague said that based on how loud the planes were,
19:58
Speaker 1: they may have been just four hundred meters above the house.
20:01
Speaker 1: Please searched thirty thousand houses in fifteen suburbs, including in
20:06
Speaker 1: kool Arroo, East Keeler, Niderie and West Meadows without any luck.
20:11
Speaker 1: And I do apologize if I'm messing up the names here.
20:14
Speaker 1: I always try to look up the names, but sometimes
20:17
Speaker 1: you get a pronunciation that's right, and other times he
20:19
Speaker 1: get a pronunciation that's wrong. So anybody watching from Australia
20:23
Speaker 1: please grant me some grace here. So this guy was very,
20:27
Speaker 1: very meticulous. He left no DNA, no evidence ever that
20:30
Speaker 1: he was even there in the first place. He lived
20:33
Speaker 1: underneath an airport area. There are all these kind of
20:36
Speaker 1: little clues as to who he could be. But something
20:38
Speaker 1: else that threw investigators off that's so perplexing and just
20:42
Speaker 1: bizarre that he did this was purposefully. He actually threw
20:46
Speaker 1: investigators some red herrings. A red herring being a false
20:50
Speaker 1: piece of evidence to send somebody, you know, down the
20:52
Speaker 1: wrong path of investigation. Mister Krule used those red herrings
20:56
Speaker 1: to mislead or distract investigators from relevant or imptant information,
21:01
Speaker 1: including red herrings such as the following. During one of
21:03
Speaker 1: the abductions, mister Krule actually pretended to talk to an accomplice,
21:08
Speaker 1: and he also pretended to have been seeking a twenty
21:10
Speaker 1: five thousand dollars ransom. The accomplice wasn't there, and obviously
21:14
Speaker 1: mister Krule wasn't doing this.
21:16
Speaker 2: For a ransom.
21:17
Speaker 1: During one of the other abductions, he also pretended to
21:19
Speaker 1: make a phone call. He also at times acted like
21:22
Speaker 1: he was looking for money throughout the houses that these
21:24
Speaker 1: attacks occurred in. And finally, he actually spray painted one
21:28
Speaker 1: of the family cars at one of the homes of
21:31
Speaker 1: his crimes.
21:31
Speaker 2: So he was.
21:32
Speaker 1: Constantly leaving these little clues trying to lead people down
21:35
Speaker 1: the path of Oh, he might have had an accomplice
21:37
Speaker 1: who is he talking to Does this guy want money?
21:40
Speaker 1: Send the police looking in all these different directions. Basically,
21:43
Speaker 1: that was his plan and it worked. He also had
21:45
Speaker 1: the freedom of movement behind him. Mister Krule supposedly slept
21:49
Speaker 1: in until ten am during one of his attacks, and
21:51
Speaker 1: he was unshaven during the Lower Plenty attack in August
21:55
Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty seven. He abducted three of his main
21:57
Speaker 1: victims during or leading up to school holidays, and he
22:01
Speaker 1: was able to conduct extensive stocking and surveillance in the
22:04
Speaker 1: lead up to these which would mean that he wouldn't have,
22:08
Speaker 1: you know, a necessarily regular job because he was committing
22:11
Speaker 1: these crimes at all hours on you know, certain days,
22:15
Speaker 1: in certain periods. He slept in during one of the
22:18
Speaker 1: attacks until ten am he didn't have anywhere to be.
22:21
Speaker 1: And it's also been assumed that mister Krule had criminal
22:23
Speaker 1: slash tactical experience. You see, during some of these attacks
22:26
Speaker 1: he used knots that are used by sailors, track drivers,
22:30
Speaker 1: farmers and fishermen, and was so confident in his ability
22:33
Speaker 1: to tie those knots that he wore gloves when he
22:36
Speaker 1: did it, and he was able to leave adult victims
22:38
Speaker 1: tied up in other rooms unable to escape. He also
22:41
Speaker 1: knew how to cut phone lines to cut off communications.
22:44
Speaker 1: He also always parked around the corner from the house
22:47
Speaker 1: where he was going to commit the crime or in
22:49
Speaker 1: front of vacant blocks or houses in order to avoid detection.
22:53
Speaker 1: And finally, he was able to manipulate and use a
22:56
Speaker 1: small black pistol style handgun. Entering the homes was pretty
22:59
Speaker 1: simple for him. He had a bunch of different ways
23:01
Speaker 1: that he liked to enter the homes of the victims.
23:04
Speaker 1: He entered the home through various different means, including removing
23:07
Speaker 1: the window pane with a knife, forcing rollout window, and
23:11
Speaker 1: pushing the key through the lock. He had weapons and
23:13
Speaker 1: handcuffs with him and carried a kid at all times
23:16
Speaker 1: containing house breaking implements and restraints. His evidence that he
23:19
Speaker 1: left behind of planning suggests that this offender spent time
23:24
Speaker 1: conducting reconnaissance and surveillance on his victims and the downfall
23:28
Speaker 1: of so many killers the trophies. Mister Krule stole several
23:32
Speaker 1: distinctive items from his victims, including an Ecuadorian shirt company
23:36
Speaker 1: parko with a fake black fur collar, a gold diamond
23:39
Speaker 1: engagement ring with the number four to one, three two
23:42
Speaker 1: stamped inside a classic gold record set by London Philharmonic Orchestra.
23:47
Speaker 1: Rosemary Linus's driver's license, a Medicare card and credit card,
23:51
Speaker 1: a beach bag, a PLC summer uniform, tracksuit pants and
23:55
Speaker 1: a school jumper, and a Melbourne Football Club beanie. So
23:59
Speaker 1: he liked to take these items, but he didn't always
24:01
Speaker 1: take the same item. I don't think any of those
24:03
Speaker 1: items are the same. He liked to take something random
24:05
Speaker 1: from the people he was victimizing, and none of that
24:07
Speaker 1: stuff has ever been found or recovered.
24:10
Speaker 2: But what about the.
24:11
Speaker 1: Car that he drove well. During the December nineteen eighty
24:14
Speaker 1: eight and July nineteen ninety abductions, mister Krule transported his
24:18
Speaker 1: victims inside of a car. It was a four door
24:20
Speaker 1: vehicle with a carpeted floor, bucket seats, a low glove box,
24:24
Speaker 1: and a floor gear shift. The vehicle smelled clean but
24:27
Speaker 1: sounded old, and according to the victims, he had trouble
24:30
Speaker 1: starting it. The floor, carpet, front door, armrest, and pressed
24:34
Speaker 1: down lock were all cream colored, and he told both
24:37
Speaker 1: of the girls that were inside of the car that
24:39
Speaker 1: the car was stolen, which suggests to some that the
24:42
Speaker 1: car was in fact not stolen. That was another red herring.
24:45
Speaker 1: On the night one of his victims was abducted, a
24:48
Speaker 1: white commodore vacation or sedan with three blue stripes along
24:52
Speaker 1: the sides was seen acting suspiciously in the nearby area.
24:55
Speaker 1: Three independent witnesses reported seeing a van by the murder victims,
24:59
Speaker 1: how house, and a truck near the area where her
25:02
Speaker 1: remains were later discovered, but these were never officially confirmed.
25:05
Speaker 1: But what about the locations of the crimes. Where was
25:08
Speaker 1: mister Crule taking these girls and where was he keeping
25:11
Speaker 1: them held hostage? Well, two of mister Cruhle's victims were
25:15
Speaker 1: able to provide police with details of the house where
25:17
Speaker 1: they had been kept, descriptions both of the bedroom and
25:20
Speaker 1: the bathroom where they were held captive. Additionally, both Sharon
25:24
Speaker 1: and Nicholas said that the house unit or flat had
25:27
Speaker 1: a drive on its right hand side. Nicholas said that
25:30
Speaker 1: it had one step from the drive up into the premises.
25:34
Speaker 1: Both girls were able to occasionally sneak a look inside
25:37
Speaker 1: of the premises despite warnings not to remove their blindfolds.
25:40
Speaker 1: Sharon described the bedroom that she was being kept in
25:43
Speaker 1: as being the second room from the front door on
25:45
Speaker 1: the right hand side. She additionally provided the following information
25:49
Speaker 1: to police, sharing that the bedroom had a baijor cream carpet,
25:53
Speaker 1: peachey full length curtains, a double bed with a peachy
25:56
Speaker 1: orange BedHead, a white duna with patterns, a peachy orange
26:00
Speaker 1: lamp base, a lemon lamp shade with thin white vertical stripes,
26:03
Speaker 1: light colored walls, a brown or black chest of drawers
26:07
Speaker 1: beside the bed, a large window to the right of
26:09
Speaker 1: the bed, and a second chest of drawers to the
26:11
Speaker 1: right of the bed, A wooden tripod set near the
26:14
Speaker 1: end of the bed, probably to film his captives, a
26:17
Speaker 1: radio on the left side of the bed, a metallic
26:19
Speaker 1: type weight near the left side of the bed, and
26:21
Speaker 1: a dark blanket covering a bookcase or cabinet at the
26:24
Speaker 1: opposite end of the room from the bed, possibly to
26:27
Speaker 1: hide identifiable possessions. As for the bathroom of the home,
26:30
Speaker 1: there was a bath, a glass sliding door to the shower,
26:33
Speaker 1: and a wall mounted pedestal type wash basin adjacent to
26:37
Speaker 1: the shower door. Nicholas said the bath didn't appear to
26:40
Speaker 1: be a full sized bath, and that the separate shower
26:43
Speaker 1: was between the bath and the washbasin. Both girls said
26:46
Speaker 1: that the toilet was in a separate room next to
26:48
Speaker 1: the bathroom and was low to the ground. The toilet
26:51
Speaker 1: had dual flush, and the toilet roll holder was on
26:53
Speaker 1: the right when seated on the toilet, and that the
26:55
Speaker 1: door to the toilet opened right to left from the outside.
26:59
Speaker 1: So now that you I've heard the story, So now
27:01
Speaker 1: that you know the stories of the victims and the crimes,
27:03
Speaker 1: you know the qualities and properties that you might be
27:06
Speaker 1: able to use to identify who mister Kruhle was. We
27:09
Speaker 1: need to talk about a few suspects. So on April ninth,
27:13
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, the Herald Son newspaper published details of the
27:17
Speaker 1: Spectrum Task Forces dossier's on seven suspects, known as the
27:21
Speaker 1: Sierra Files, that were produced with the assistance of the
27:24
Speaker 1: US FBI detectives had been issued with an instruction in
27:28
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, following the disbandment of the Spectrum Task Force,
27:32
Speaker 1: that if another child was abducted, then all of the
27:34
Speaker 1: Sierra Files suspects were to be arrested and questioned. The
27:38
Speaker 1: newspaper also published details of police witness statements from the
27:41
Speaker 1: victims and their families. The dossier provided the following information
27:45
Speaker 1: regarding the seven suspects. Prime suspect number one, Brian Elkner.
27:50
Speaker 1: Prime Suspect number one was supposedly a former Melbourne University
27:54
Speaker 1: lecturer now aged eighty two if he's still alive. He
27:58
Speaker 1: lived in Thorbury at the time of the miss cruel
28:00
Speaker 1: attacks up through when the Harold posted information from the
28:03
Speaker 1: dossiers about the suspects. At that point he moved interesting.
28:07
Speaker 1: He was jailed for ten years in the nineteen seventies
28:09
Speaker 1: after pleading guilty to and other offenses involving attacks at
28:14
Speaker 1: knife point on girls and young women inside of their
28:16
Speaker 1: own homes. Recently retired from his position as a director
28:20
Speaker 1: of his construction design company. Back in twenty sixteen, he
28:23
Speaker 1: admitted to the Harold's son that he knows he's the
28:25
Speaker 1: prime suspect, but he denied that he was mister Kruel. Additionally,
28:29
Speaker 1: detectives searched his home during their investigation and they found
28:33
Speaker 1: a knife in Bali Clava hidden in the roof, though
28:35
Speaker 1: he claims he was at his brother's wedding during one
28:38
Speaker 1: of the attacks, so there's no way it could have
28:40
Speaker 1: been him. Elkner was later questioned for twelve hours by
28:43
Speaker 1: detectives during Operation Spectrum, and is considered by former Spectrum
28:47
Speaker 1: Task Force had David Sprague more likely than any other
28:51
Speaker 1: suspect to be mister Kruhl. Now he seems pretty likely
28:54
Speaker 1: he got the balidklava and the knife. Give a history
28:57
Speaker 1: of attacking women inside of their own homes with a knife.
29:00
Speaker 1: You were in prison for those crimes. You moved houses,
29:04
Speaker 1: you know, at the same time as some of these
29:06
Speaker 1: things were unfolding.
29:06
Speaker 2: You lived in the nearby area.
29:08
Speaker 1: It's interesting, right, we have to move on to suspect
29:10
Speaker 1: number two. Suspect number two, now close to age seventy four,
29:14
Speaker 1: lived in nearby Eltam at the time of the Mister
29:17
Speaker 1: Cruel attacks.
29:17
Speaker 2: The father of his.
29:18
Speaker 1: Former girlfriend still lives at the suspect's Eltam address and
29:22
Speaker 1: recently told the Harold's son that he has discovered that
29:25
Speaker 1: after moving from Eltam, he lived in several homes in
29:28
Speaker 1: the Box Hill in Surrey Hills Areas. He ran a
29:31
Speaker 1: number of businesses in Baldwin and Mount Albert North before
29:34
Speaker 1: moving to live in a caravan park in Late Kathy,
29:38
Speaker 1: NSW after marrying a Canadian woman. He left the caravan
29:41
Speaker 1: park in June twenty fourteen and moved to Canada to
29:44
Speaker 1: live with his wife. One of his brothers recently told
29:47
Speaker 1: the Harold's son that he had lost touch with his
29:49
Speaker 1: sibling but would try to contact him to tell him
29:51
Speaker 1: that the Harold's son wanted to speak with him. The
29:53
Speaker 1: Harold's son itself also reached out to that second suspect,
29:56
Speaker 1: but he never responded. There's also Suspect number three, close
29:59
Speaker 1: to age seventy six now in twenty twenty five Mister Kruel.
30:03
Speaker 1: Suspect number three lives in musk where he resided at
30:06
Speaker 1: the time of the Mister Kruel attacks as well.
30:09
Speaker 2: It's also in kind of a nearby area.
30:11
Speaker 1: Suspect number three really doesn't want to be tracked down,
30:13
Speaker 1: though He changed his name by deed poll in nineteen
30:16
Speaker 1: eighty eight and has since changed it again, so he's
30:19
Speaker 1: changed his names twice. He spoke at one point briefly
30:22
Speaker 1: and angrily to the Harold's son before he ordered the
30:25
Speaker 1: journalist that was trying to ask him questions to leave
30:28
Speaker 1: his property. There's also Suspect number four, who's near sixty
30:31
Speaker 1: five years old now, who lived in Harcourt at the
30:34
Speaker 1: time of the mister Kruel attacks, and while he still
30:36
Speaker 1: does own that house, his neighbors told the Harold's son
30:39
Speaker 1: that he spends most of his time in Melbourne and
30:42
Speaker 1: only occasionally returns to his Hardcourt address. He was unable
30:45
Speaker 1: to be contacted. There's also Suspect number five, who died
30:49
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen at the age of sixty six and
30:51
Speaker 1: lived in Knoxfield at the time of the Mister Kruel attacks.
30:54
Speaker 1: He was married with children and grandchildren when he died,
30:57
Speaker 1: and he worked as a self employed tradesman. Suspect number
31:00
Speaker 1: six is either deceased or around seventy years old. He
31:03
Speaker 1: lived in Baldwin at the time of the Mister Cruel
31:05
Speaker 1: attacks and has since moved into his mother's Mount Waverley
31:08
Speaker 1: home following her death several years ago. He still lives there.
31:11
Speaker 1: His Baldwyn home was demolished and replaced with a two
31:14
Speaker 1: story mansion after he sold it, and in twenty sixteen
31:17
Speaker 1: he confirmed to the Harold's son that he was aware
31:20
Speaker 1: he was a Mister Cruel suspect, but he obviously denied
31:23
Speaker 1: any involvement in the attacks. I've never had any charges
31:26
Speaker 1: laid against me. I've been interviewed. Yes, along with twenty
31:29
Speaker 1: seven thousand other people.
31:31
Speaker 2: I was interviewed. That was it.
31:32
Speaker 1: He was quoted as saying at that time, Suspect number
31:35
Speaker 1: seven would be seventy five years old if he was
31:37
Speaker 1: still alive and he lived in Glen Iris at the
31:40
Speaker 1: times of the mister Kruel attacks. There's been no answer
31:42
Speaker 1: on the many times the Harold's son knocked on the
31:45
Speaker 1: door of the address he lived in twenty five years ago.
31:47
Speaker 1: It's unclear if he was hiding from the newspaper or
31:50
Speaker 1: he just didn't want to speak, or maybe he sold it.
31:52
Speaker 1: Maybe he doesn't live there anymore, but neighbors claim they
31:54
Speaker 1: weren't aware of him living there. He also isn't on
31:57
Speaker 1: the electoral roll or in the phone book, and he
31:59
Speaker 1: doesn't social media, so no one's able to contact this guy.
32:03
Speaker 1: So those are the seven suspects. I mean, I think
32:06
Speaker 1: one definitely stands out, but still, I mean, I don't know.
32:10
Speaker 1: Mister Krule definitely committed like a perfect crime, leaving no evidence,
32:15
Speaker 1: no footprints, no DNA, no nothing for people to.
32:19
Speaker 2: Go off of.
32:19
Speaker 1: So even if you really did suspect it was the guy,
32:22
Speaker 1: you would have nothing to base that stuff on. You
32:25
Speaker 1: wouldn't have a DNA to match his DNA to You
32:28
Speaker 1: wouldn't have anything like that because it doesn't exist. So
32:30
Speaker 1: I don't even know how you would potentially solve this
32:33
Speaker 1: case unless someone finally confessed. In twenty twenty, though, retired
32:37
Speaker 1: homicide detective Ron Idels revealed to the Australian True Crime
32:41
Speaker 1: Podcast who he believed was mister Kruel. According to Idols,
32:45
Speaker 1: a well known crook who was dying of cancer told
32:48
Speaker 1: him that in around two thousand and three, mister Krule
32:51
Speaker 1: had lived in a house right under the flight path
32:53
Speaker 1: in Eltam with a layout the same way as described
32:56
Speaker 1: by victims, and was by that time already dead. Additionally,
33:00
Speaker 1: it was reported that this person of interest was a
33:02
Speaker 1: successful businessman who frequented the Chan Family restaurant and cross
33:07
Speaker 1: dressed from time to time in his private life. On
33:09
Speaker 1: April thirty first, twenty twenty two, The Harold's Sun journalist
33:13
Speaker 1: Andrew Rule named Ron Idles' informant as dock worker and
33:17
Speaker 1: housebreaker Alfred Hugh Gay and his suspect as a man
33:21
Speaker 1: named Normie Lee. Normi was a notorious armed robber who
33:24
Speaker 1: was shot dead by the police during a botched robbery
33:27
Speaker 1: attempt at the Melbourne Airport in July nineteen ninety two,
33:31
Speaker 1: just three months after the discovery of Carmen Chan's body. Now,
33:34
Speaker 1: according to rule, Lee confessed to his associate Gay that
33:39
Speaker 1: he had been the one that killed Carmen Chan. Apparently,
33:42
Speaker 1: Gay also told Adols that Lee had a collection of
33:45
Speaker 1: school dresses and owned a house in Napoleon Street, Eltam
33:49
Speaker 1: with the covered garage that matched the description given by
33:52
Speaker 1: both Sharon and Nikola. There's also a man who could
33:54
Speaker 1: have done it named Robert Keith Knight. Now Robert Knight
33:58
Speaker 1: was detained in twenty thirteen and had a history that
34:01
Speaker 1: long suggested he could have been mister Kruhle. He made
34:04
Speaker 1: a living working as a youth worker and school volunteer,
34:07
Speaker 1: but had been arrested on two separate occasions for a
34:09
Speaker 1: variety of crimes against children. In nineteen eighty and nineteen
34:13
Speaker 1: ninety six, Robert Knight had been arrested and convicted for
34:16
Speaker 1: various on miners, and a multitude of other victims had
34:20
Speaker 1: come out of the woodwork following his convictions, claiming that
34:23
Speaker 1: he had hit them as well. According to the original
34:26
Speaker 1: Operation Spectrum investigators, Robert Knight was one of their suspects
34:30
Speaker 1: who had never quite panned out, but investigators had been
34:32
Speaker 1: unable to eliminate him from contention. He remained a person
34:36
Speaker 1: of interest throughout the following investigations, and the timing of
34:39
Speaker 1: the Mister Cruel assaults would have coincided with his post
34:42
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty conviction release. And here's another disturbing little tidbit
34:46
Speaker 1: about the sky. After being released from prison from his
34:49
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six conviction in the year two thousand and nine,
34:52
Speaker 1: Robert Knight began to immediately amass a collection, a disturbing collection,
34:57
Speaker 1: a collection of thousands of the images, and he was
35:01
Speaker 1: later detained in an investigation by Victorian police. He pled guilty,
35:05
Speaker 1: obviously because of the overwhelming evidence, and while he was
35:08
Speaker 1: awaiting trial, he leaped from a second story prison railing
35:12
Speaker 1: and unlived himself. He had chosen the easy way out
35:15
Speaker 1: instead of having to confront the truth.
35:18
Speaker 2: So that's interesting too. That's a really weird one.
35:20
Speaker 1: You have a guy who's a criminal predator, who has
35:22
Speaker 1: an interest in children, who's in the area at the time.
35:25
Speaker 1: The timing of him being out of prison for similar
35:27
Speaker 1: crimes matches up with the timeline of the crimes. He
35:30
Speaker 1: can never stop himself and then he takes the secret
35:33
Speaker 1: to the grave. Could he have been involved with the
35:35
Speaker 1: myster cruel murders?
35:36
Speaker 2: I don't know.
35:37
Speaker 1: There are also, though, a couple of weird inconsistencies and
35:40
Speaker 1: strange occurrences that happened throughout this case. For example, in
35:44
Speaker 1: March of twenty twenty two, sixty minutes Australia reported that
35:48
Speaker 1: a woman who was friends and neighbors with one of
35:50
Speaker 1: the victims had come forward to report information regarding mister Krule.
35:54
Speaker 2: Take a look at this clip.
35:56
Speaker 3: Their homes backed onto a clear right of way for
36:00
Speaker 3: high tension electrical tails. It's a private area for power lines.
36:06
Speaker 3: You'd have to know it was there. You could look
36:08
Speaker 3: at either end of that street and not know it
36:10
Speaker 3: was there. That's how secluded this area is. You only
36:14
Speaker 3: would be there if you know about it, But say
36:17
Speaker 3: muwing under the power lines or maintenance. Only someone who
36:21
Speaker 3: knew those power lines and the access it had to
36:25
Speaker 3: the houses on the back fence, because you can see
36:28
Speaker 3: over the fence without anyone noticing what you're doing.
36:30
Speaker 4: My brother's always played football cricket under the power lines
36:34
Speaker 4: and they were the only people up there all the time.
36:37
Speaker 4: So they were up there one day and they saw
36:42
Speaker 4: a man filming over victim to back fence video cameraing.
36:47
Speaker 3: With a JVC video camera over over the back fence.
36:51
Speaker 3: So he was struggling to make it over because he
36:55
Speaker 3: was about five foot nine to five foot ten, so
36:58
Speaker 3: he was struggling to kind of reach over to film.
37:01
Speaker 3: So when they came up, he was very shocked that
37:04
Speaker 3: he was caught, and he took off. And so this
37:09
Speaker 3: happened prior to the kidnapping. And when the kidnapping happened,
37:15
Speaker 3: my brothers told my mom and my mom called the police.
37:19
Speaker 3: The police didn't come, but they had the information because
37:22
Speaker 3: they came years later. And when they did come, they
37:25
Speaker 3: were only there for a few minutes, so they didn't
37:27
Speaker 3: take any information from the boys. So this information is
37:33
Speaker 3: all new.
37:34
Speaker 1: In May of twenty twenty three, Daily Mail Australia reported
37:38
Speaker 1: that another woman who believed that she lived right next
37:41
Speaker 1: door to mister Krule, claimed that she was being ignored
37:43
Speaker 1: by homicide squad detectives who refused to interview her about
37:47
Speaker 1: the cold case.
37:48
Speaker 2: A Victoria Police.
37:49
Speaker 1: Spokeswoman told the Daily Mail Australia that a homicide squad
37:52
Speaker 1: detective had spoken to the woman over the phone, but
37:55
Speaker 1: had determined that the information that she supplied via crime
37:58
Speaker 1: Stoppers was not enough to progress the investigation. Mister Bennett,
38:02
Speaker 1: who in twenty twenty two exposed the official nineteen ninety
38:05
Speaker 1: one joint Victoria Police and FBI profile on the case
38:09
Speaker 1: to be flawed, claimed that Victorian detectives needed to interview
38:12
Speaker 1: the woman, saying police should have checked out this lady's
38:15
Speaker 1: story just as a matter of good public relations. The
38:18
Speaker 1: police should have done more to check out her story.
38:20
Speaker 1: He said, I've complained to multiple police chief commissioners that
38:23
Speaker 1: do nothing approach loses the narrative to others by default.
38:26
Speaker 1: Since twenty sixteen, almost all the announcements and discoveries on
38:29
Speaker 1: the mister Cruel cases have been made by private researchers,
38:32
Speaker 1: general public witnesses, and nor media. Police have done little
38:36
Speaker 1: and at times been an obstruction to information. He was
38:39
Speaker 1: quoted as saying, Harold Sun journalist Ron It'll supposedly passed
38:43
Speaker 1: on information to the police regarding Normi Lee, that suspect
38:47
Speaker 1: he had uncovered through that beat down crook, but the
38:49
Speaker 1: police supposedly never investigated the lead any further, as Missus
38:53
Speaker 1: Chan was unable to recognize him. Additionally, Normi Lee had
38:57
Speaker 1: first gained notoriety after being charged then discharged of the
39:01
Speaker 1: infamous nineteen seventy six Great Bookie Robbery. Interestingly, the first
39:05
Speaker 1: words of the masked bandits during that Bookie robbery were
39:09
Speaker 1: We'll blow your heads off, a phrase used by mister
39:11
Speaker 1: Krule during both the Linus subduction and by Alfi Gay's
39:15
Speaker 1: gang during the nineteen seventy MSS Security robbery for which
39:19
Speaker 1: he was sentenced to twelve years in jail in nineteen
39:21
Speaker 1: seventy four. Now, curiously, Lee's partner in crime, Normy Lee.
39:25
Speaker 1: The suspect during this botched airport heist in July nineteen
39:29
Speaker 1: ninety two when he was shot and killed, was Stephen Asling,
39:32
Speaker 1: who was later suspected of using the same patch of
39:34
Speaker 1: wasteland beside Edgars Creek and Thomastown where Carmen Chan's body
39:39
Speaker 1: was found in April nineteen ninety two to bury Terence Blewett.
39:43
Speaker 1: In two thousand and four, Now, according to a twenty
39:46
Speaker 1: eighteen article in AU News by Ron Smith, many believed
39:50
Speaker 1: that mister Krule had uncanny similar behavior to that of
39:53
Speaker 1: the US serial killer and known as the Golden State Killer.
39:57
Speaker 1: Both of these killers took breaks to eat meal, both
40:00
Speaker 1: were armed with a knife and a gun, and both
40:02
Speaker 1: pretended to have conversations with people who weren't there. Both
40:06
Speaker 1: of them also used expert knots to tie up their victims,
40:09
Speaker 1: and additionally, both looked kind of similar. They wore dark,
40:12
Speaker 1: bald clavas and had long hair protruding from underneath, and
40:15
Speaker 1: because of that, the police sketches are almost identical. Both
40:18
Speaker 1: crept into homes holding large knives and waited to be found.
40:22
Speaker 1: They'd be in the same age range right now, and
40:25
Speaker 1: both were pathologically meticulous with their crimes. Finally, both of
40:29
Speaker 1: them came under the microscope of the FBI, despite the
40:32
Speaker 1: crimes occurring on opposite sides of the planet. In nineteen
40:34
Speaker 1: ninety one, following the disappearance of Carmen, the FBI sent
40:38
Speaker 1: a letter to Victoria police detailing the steps they should
40:41
Speaker 1: take to catch mister Krule, what his interests were, how
40:44
Speaker 1: his relationships played out, and why he attacked when and
40:47
Speaker 1: where he did. The FBI noted that the offender has
40:50
Speaker 1: an intense interest in children. They said, quote, he will
40:52
Speaker 1: have his own homemade and would typically live in a
40:56
Speaker 1: single family residence, one with a garage or carport end quote.
41:00
Speaker 1: Letter dated April twenty fourth, nineteen ninety one stated that
41:03
Speaker 1: if the killer were in a relationship quote, the partner
41:05
Speaker 1: would be aware of some dysfunctions end quote. In twenty sixteen,
41:09
Speaker 1: Smith's article related information that the retired La Sheriff's Department
41:14
Speaker 1: detective David Gates reached out to suggest that the Golden
41:17
Speaker 1: State Killer closely resemble the man wanted for burglaries in
41:20
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen eighties, who police later discovered had moved
41:24
Speaker 1: to Australia. Now it should be stated here that the
41:26
Speaker 1: Golden State Killer, Joseph DiAngelo, has actually been identified. The
41:31
Speaker 1: Golden State Killer himself first struck in nineteen seventy eight
41:34
Speaker 1: in California with the double murder of Brian and Katie
41:37
Speaker 1: maggioor in Sacramento. A year later, he broke into the
41:40
Speaker 1: home of Robert Offerman and his girlfriend Deborah Manning, tied
41:43
Speaker 1: them both up and shot them, and over the next
41:46
Speaker 1: six years he would kill three more couples and two
41:48
Speaker 1: single women. A number of the murders were in Goletta
41:51
Speaker 1: and Irvine, suggesting that the killer returned to neighborhoods he
41:54
Speaker 1: was familiar with. The FBI suggested that mister Kruhle did
41:58
Speaker 1: exactly the same thing. Tist Adam Shan actually made the
42:01
Speaker 1: determination that Victoria Police do in fact have mister Krule's
42:06
Speaker 1: DNA on file from the abduction of a Ringwood schoolgirl
42:09
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty eight. Over the years, Victoria police let
42:12
Speaker 1: the media run unchallenged with the line that mister Crule
42:15
Speaker 1: quote was careful not to leave.
42:17
Speaker 2: Behind any DNA end quote.
42:19
Speaker 1: That's a twist, right well, mister Cruhle. Investigator Chris O'Connor
42:23
Speaker 1: told the Harold's son on November eighth, twenty thirteen, forensic
42:26
Speaker 1: evidence for this particular series of crimes is the leanest
42:29
Speaker 1: I have ever seen.
42:30
Speaker 2: End quote.
42:31
Speaker 1: However, after a close review of Victoria Police's public statements
42:35
Speaker 1: on the case, there was not any instance of police
42:37
Speaker 1: definitely stating that they do not have mister Kruhle's DNA. Moreover,
42:41
Speaker 1: they declined to comment on the revelations made in the Hunters. Additionally,
42:46
Speaker 1: journalists question that, with mister Kruhle's meticulous plans and red herrings,
42:50
Speaker 1: was what they had actually mister Krule's DNA, or was
42:53
Speaker 1: it possible that he had deliberately left behind someone else's
42:57
Speaker 1: DNA once again to throw them off interesting. An anonymous
43:00
Speaker 1: online comment or recently claimed that the police had found
43:04
Speaker 1: a ginger whisker at one of the crime scenes. Until recently,
43:08
Speaker 1: hair strands could not always provide a reliable DNA profile.
43:11
Speaker 1: In particular, rootless hair shaft samples like whiskers pose challenges
43:15
Speaker 1: due to their insufficient amounts of nuclear DNA. Now, traditionally,
43:19
Speaker 1: mitochondrial DNA analysis is used for rootless hair, which is
43:22
Speaker 1: far less precise. Many people share identical mitochondrial DNA sequences,
43:27
Speaker 1: and therefore it cannot be definitively used to identify a
43:31
Speaker 1: specific individual or suspect. However, it can be used to
43:35
Speaker 1: exclude individuals in the same way that blood groups can.
43:38
Speaker 1: In the last decade, new DNA extraction techniques have made
43:41
Speaker 1: it possible to obtain profiles from degraded or trace samples,
43:45
Speaker 1: just like rootless hairs, with increasing success. So it's likely
43:49
Speaker 1: that the technology has advanced to a point where the
43:51
Speaker 1: police would be able to generate a profile if they
43:54
Speaker 1: did indeed have and still have a whisker of mister
43:57
Speaker 1: Krules in the abduction of a second victim, share and Wills.
44:00
Speaker 1: Mister Krule used a copper wire to tie the hands
44:03
Speaker 1: of her parents. Copper wire was expensive and difficult to
44:06
Speaker 1: acquire in the nineteen eighties and nineties, meaning that authorities
44:10
Speaker 1: could look at suspects who had easy access to it.
44:12
Speaker 1: Mister Crule may have been working as an electrician in
44:15
Speaker 1: the construction industry, or he may have had access to
44:17
Speaker 1: work sites where materials like copper wire are more common. Additionally,
44:22
Speaker 1: during the Will's attack, journalist Keith Moore reported in the
44:25
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen article in The Herald's Son that mister Krule
44:28
Speaker 1: had gotten into their house by sliding a newspaper under
44:30
Speaker 1: the back door and pushing out a key that was
44:33
Speaker 1: placed in the keyhole on the inside of the door.
44:35
Speaker 1: Then he pulled the newspaper back out under the door.
44:38
Speaker 1: Michael Waylan noted that he asked a locksmith about this method,
44:41
Speaker 1: and they reported that it would be impossible to do
44:44
Speaker 1: with modern locks, but it had been a technique used
44:46
Speaker 1: by burglars decades in the past. But it certainly indicated
44:50
Speaker 1: a wealth of knowledge that mister Krule supposedly had, so
44:53
Speaker 1: somehow he could see that there was a key on
44:55
Speaker 1: the inside of the lock from some vantage point in
44:58
Speaker 1: the back garden of the Wills resident, or had he
45:00
Speaker 1: been inside of the residence at some point and seen
45:03
Speaker 1: the key in the lock. There were reportedly fireman, journalists,
45:06
Speaker 1: and a photographer inside the residence in July of nineteen
45:10
Speaker 1: eighty eight, after a fire had occurred earlier that year,
45:12
Speaker 1: as reported in a newspaper article written by Paul Cunningham, saying, quote,
45:17
Speaker 1: the mother of four young girls battled desperately to smother
45:19
Speaker 1: of fire in the children's bedroom caused by a faulty
45:22
Speaker 1: electric blanket end quote. And because those attacks occurred around
45:26
Speaker 1: school holidays, another theory is that he may have been
45:29
Speaker 1: a teacher or someone who worked at a school. According
45:31
Speaker 1: to an FBI report from nineteen ninety one, quote, the
45:34
Speaker 1: offender has an intense interest in children, especially children in
45:38
Speaker 1: the age group he is. He will spend a great
45:40
Speaker 1: deal of time with these children in what appears to
45:43
Speaker 1: be selfless dedication to students end quote. Many believe that
45:46
Speaker 1: the drug connection in regards to the Carmen murder and
45:49
Speaker 1: the spray painted family car wasn't looked into enough. According
45:53
Speaker 1: to Michael Whalen of Unresolved dotm E, the task force
45:56
Speaker 1: mishandled many of the case files. Many were misfiled on
45:59
Speaker 1: organis or just went missing. Additionally, one of the vital
46:03
Speaker 1: pieces of evidence that could have led to mister Kruhle's doorstep,
46:06
Speaker 1: a piece of tape that was used to bind one
46:08
Speaker 1: of his victims, also went missing. It could have been
46:11
Speaker 1: used to recover DNA from mister Kruhle, but disappeared while
46:14
Speaker 1: it was.
46:15
Speaker 2: In police custody.
46:16
Speaker 1: Now, Michael whalan notes the interesting use of the wooden
46:19
Speaker 1: camera tripod that mister Kruhle kept in the bedroom that
46:22
Speaker 1: Sharon and Nikola noted was there, saying that such wooden
46:26
Speaker 1: devices were rare in the nineteen eighties and typically owned
46:29
Speaker 1: by professional photographers, surveyors or cinematographers. Is this related to
46:34
Speaker 1: the photographer that was at the Will's house investigating the
46:37
Speaker 1: fire at their home? Due to missing pieces of crucial evidence,
46:41
Speaker 1: paired with mister Kruhle's tactical abilities and his knowledge of
46:44
Speaker 1: forensic evidence, many believe now that he may have been
46:47
Speaker 1: involved in law enforcement. I mean, it's possible, it's possible
46:50
Speaker 1: that he would know what investigators would be looking for,
46:52
Speaker 1: which is how he's been able to evade capture for
46:55
Speaker 1: all these years, cleansing his victims of any DNA and
46:58
Speaker 1: removing any vital evidence after the crimes. A picture of
47:01
Speaker 1: the investigation at the electricity substation in q where Linus
47:05
Speaker 1: was released indicated that detectives had possibly identified at that
47:09
Speaker 1: point a footprint in the grass. The picture shows men
47:11
Speaker 1: in uniform crouched down on the ground and pointing to
47:14
Speaker 1: something in the grass to which they were measuring with
47:16
Speaker 1: the tape measure. During his own private investigation, Whalen spoke
47:20
Speaker 1: to one of the many men who was accused of
47:22
Speaker 1: being mister Cruel one of the suspects, and the suspect
47:25
Speaker 1: informed him that the first thing the detectives did was
47:28
Speaker 1: measure his feet, and interestingly enough, forensic psychologist Ian Joblin
47:32
Speaker 1: of the Linus case reported a mysterious caller who called
47:36
Speaker 1: him three times during one weekend in July of nineteen ninety.
47:40
Speaker 1: Ian reported that the caller had knowledge of the investigation
47:43
Speaker 1: that was only supposedly known by Nicola and the police.
47:47
Speaker 1: This caller, who called him three times, also referred to
47:50
Speaker 1: other similar offenses. Supposedly the abduction of Sharon Wills and
47:54
Speaker 1: the Lower Plenty attack. Finally, the caller spoke in great
47:58
Speaker 1: detail about the area that Nicol was taken, to, what
48:01
Speaker 1: she had eaten that day, and even what she did
48:03
Speaker 1: when she was on the toilet. This all seems like
48:05
Speaker 1: it would have been a very important lead, but it
48:08
Speaker 1: was never really looked into. Nothing ever came from those
48:10
Speaker 1: phone calls. I don't even know if they investigated it now.
48:13
Speaker 1: Crime profiler John Kelly, in a July twenty twenty four
48:17
Speaker 1: article in The Age, mentioned the curiosity behind mister Krule's
48:21
Speaker 1: choice of location to dump Carmen's body, saying, well, most
48:25
Speaker 1: of the time, killers want to get away from the
48:27
Speaker 1: body as quickly as possible so they can't be connected
48:30
Speaker 1: to the victim. The more miles they put between them
48:32
Speaker 1: and the victim means the more people they put between
48:34
Speaker 1: them and the victim, and the more people equals more
48:37
Speaker 1: possible suspects for police to sort through. So the question
48:40
Speaker 1: is why did mister Krule pick a burial site where
48:43
Speaker 1: he felt he could spend the time necessary to dig
48:45
Speaker 1: a grave and bury Carmen. It's a place he was
48:47
Speaker 1: very familiar with and a place he believed he would
48:50
Speaker 1: have the safe ample time to bury Carmen. How could
48:53
Speaker 1: mister Krule be so familiar with the area and what's
48:55
Speaker 1: the attraction for him there? More recently, people have begun
48:59
Speaker 1: to theorize that mister Krule himself might have resurfaced and
49:02
Speaker 1: been involved in the twenty eleven abduction of thirteen year
49:05
Speaker 1: old schoolgirl bungs Your Boon. In twenty thirteen, detectives announced
49:09
Speaker 1: a one million dollar reward for information leading to the
49:12
Speaker 1: person responsible's apprehension and conviction, and as of twenty twenty five, Bong,
49:18
Speaker 1: that eleven year old child is still missing. It's been
49:21
Speaker 1: over ten years. As of today, mister Krule's three officially
49:24
Speaker 1: confirmed attacks and suspected murder remain unsolved cold cases which
49:29
Speaker 1: he'd hefty rewards, and.
49:31
Speaker 2: Yet there's still nothing.
49:33
Speaker 1: Nobody knows anything about mister Kruel to this day. He
49:37
Speaker 1: remains Australia's most wanted criminal. But will mister Krule ever
49:41
Speaker 1: be caught?
49:42
Speaker 2: I don't know.
49:43
Speaker 1: I highly doubt it, but never say never. So everybody,
49:47
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what do you think
49:49
Speaker 1: about mister Krul? Who do you think he was? I
49:52
Speaker 1: want your guys's theories in the comment section. If you're
49:55
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube, if you're listening to the show, I
49:58
Speaker 1: don't know how you'd leave a comment, but leave me comment.
50:00
Speaker 1: I want to know some theories because this case is terrifying.
50:04
Speaker 1: A man actually got away with abducting and murdering kids
50:10
Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties and he was never caught. He
50:13
Speaker 1: could still be alive today in Australia more than likely
50:17
Speaker 1: he is, and there's still no significant leads. It's kind
50:20
Speaker 1: of like a Jack the Ripper type situation where it's like,
50:23
Speaker 1: you know, you explain this guy's past and he seems
50:25
Speaker 1: like he could be a likely guy. But then you
50:27
Speaker 1: explain this person's past and they also seem like they
50:30
Speaker 1: could be a likely guy. And then you think, well,
50:32
Speaker 1: if they're so likely, why have they never been arrested
50:35
Speaker 1: or questioned, you know, properly, or why has nothing ever
50:38
Speaker 1: been definitively linked to them? And that's because mister Crule
50:41
Speaker 1: was good at what he did. Honestly, it's sad to say,
50:44
Speaker 1: but he was very good at killing and because he
50:48
Speaker 1: didn't leave that evidence. And something that comes up for
50:50
Speaker 1: me in this case is what's up with all like
50:53
Speaker 1: the missing evidence the show is the Conspiracy Files. But
50:56
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, you have key pieces of evidence
50:59
Speaker 1: in the mister cruel crimes that go missing. You have
51:02
Speaker 1: files that go missing. You have a piece of tape
51:04
Speaker 1: that could have DNA that goes missing. You have these
51:07
Speaker 1: leads that are like seemingly purposefully uninvestigated, people with information
51:11
Speaker 1: that are ignored. So then that you know, that has
51:15
Speaker 1: me then leaning towards the theory that it could be
51:17
Speaker 1: a law enforcement officer, or it could be someone involved
51:20
Speaker 1: with the police, I mean, highly intelligent person. This could
51:23
Speaker 1: have even been somebody from the upper crust of society,
51:26
Speaker 1: you know, an extremely wealthy person with resources. Maybe they
51:30
Speaker 1: owned a second house where they carried out these crimes,
51:33
Speaker 1: and they had interior and exterior designers come immediately afterwards
51:36
Speaker 1: and reshape the entire house and make it appear completely different.
51:40
Speaker 1: Obviously they didn't have a schedule or work to clock
51:43
Speaker 1: into because of these weird times that they carried these
51:45
Speaker 1: attacks out at. But all I can do is hope
51:49
Speaker 1: and pray that one day mister Krule has brought to justice.
51:52
Speaker 1: I mean, we all know that afterwards, when he's dead,
51:55
Speaker 1: he's not going to be going anywhere too nice. But yeah,
52:00
Speaker 1: mister Krul, what a crazy story. Anyways, y'all, I will
52:05
Speaker 1: be back next week with another episode of the show.
52:07
Speaker 1: We have some really detailed deep dives coming soon. Remember,
52:11
Speaker 1: if you love what we're doing here, please share this
52:15
Speaker 1: work to everybody that you know. Post be annoying about it,
52:18
Speaker 1: post it on Facebook, post it on X you know,
52:21
Speaker 1: give me a story, shout out on Instagram. Anything helps everybody.
52:25
Speaker 1: Because companies don't want these videos, videos like this to
52:28
Speaker 1: be seen, every little bit counts it helps. Anyways, y'all,
52:31
Speaker 1: thank you so much for watching. I will catch you
52:33
Speaker 1: next Wednesday. Keep that tinfoil hat on, stay suspicious, and
52:36
Speaker 1: I'll see you guys next week.