Friday, June 24, 2011

Cruel Hunt

The Apollo Task Force is again examining the case files regarding a notorious child rapist and killer wanted over the murder of Karmein Chan and attacks on other girls during the late 80's and mid 90's..

Despite media reports, police are no closer to catching the man.

Original information is being examined as part of a review of the original Operation Spectrum - the largest investigation in Victoria's history - and intelligence gathered since it closed in 1994.

Mr Cruel - considered a serial paedophile - terrorised Melbourne families in the late 1980s and early '90s. His last suspected crime was the killing of Karmein Chan, who was abducted from her Templestowe home as she babysat her sisters on April 13, 1991.

Karmein Chan's remains were found at Edgars Creek, Thomastown, a year later. She had been shot three times in the head. Karmein's mother, Phyllis, has kept in regular contact with police during the 20-year hunt for her daughter's killer.

Mr Cruel is wanted over attacks on at least three other girls, and is believed to have attacked up to 12 children over 10 years dating back to 1985.

After having interviewed 27,000 people in the biggest investigation in Victoria’s history, investigators revisited a huge stockpile of evidence.

To date more than 12,000 separate pieces of information had been reviewed and cross-referenced with new details as part of the investigation.

Police cannot rule out the possibility Mr Cruel had since fled the country, died or committed suicide. The profile of Mr Cruel that investigators narrowed down was of a man with few distinguishing features.

Police have not revealed whether the new suspect fits a different description to that issued in the early 90s. But at that time detectives built a picture of a man aged between 35 and late 40s, slightly built, with sandy or ginger-coloured hair, clean shaven, softly spoken and "quite caring in his own monstrous way". The man would now be close to 60 years of age.

A $300,000 reward exists for information that leads to a conviction.


HOMICIDE squad detectives fear missing schoolgirl Siriyakorn "Bung" Siriboon may have been abducted and murdered.

The 13-year-old’s disappearance has baffled seasoned detectives, who are struggling for leads weeks after she vanished outside her Boronia home on June 2.

Homicide Squad Det Insp Ian Potter said his team had taken more control over the case in the past week with the possibility she may not be found alive.

"There is that possibility unfortunately," he told reporters. "We’ve got to look at that. We’ve become involved from day one in a monitoring sense. We’ve taken a more active role over the last week or so. "We see this as a suspicious missing person. A girl 13-years of age walking to school, doesn’t arrive at school and has never been seen of since."

Their fears follow the conclusion of an extensive investigation into the teenager’s internet activity, which provided no further clues to her mysterious disappearance.

The Herald Sun revealed last week that Bung had three Facebook sites - some under false identities - and was active elsewhere on the web in the weeks before she vanished from Boronia on June 2.

Det-Insp Potter said police fear she may have been abducted while walking to school, but have absolutely no evidence to support it.

"We haven’t got any new information in that regard. We’d certainly like to know if anyone does have any information to please come forward," he said.

Bung was last seen by a neighbour as she walked down her street dressed in her school uniform and carrying her school bag.

Det Insp Potter said police did not suspect her parents of foul play.

"We’re saying Bung left home in a normal scenario, walking to school and has disappeared," he said.

Her devastated parents refuse to give up hope that they will find their daughter alive.

"The family are grieving for their daughter," Det Insp Potter said. "They are desperately in need of information…They are confident that she will be okay and that she will come home."

Detectives have been forced to return to the information they have previously received in the hope of finding something they may have missed.

"We’ve got to reinterrogate any of that information. We’ve got to sift through what we currently have," he said. "Clearly somebody knows something and we’re desperate for that person or persons to please come forward."

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Troy said...
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