Who killed the teenagers at Wanda Beach? | Forensic Files

On the 12th of January, 1965, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, both aged 15, were found
murdered on a desolate, isolated stretch of beach just north of Cronulla, south of Sydney. The case
would come to be known as the Wanda Beach murders. One mention of the word "Wanda" is enough to send
chills down the spine of those who remember the case that dominated the television reports,
radio airwaves and print media of the day. The killings sparked one of the biggest manhunts
Australia has ever seen. The police file on the case is over 10,000 pages long and over 14,000
people have been interviewed. Police efforts to solve the case have been described as exhaustive
and leads have been followed up all around Australia. Despite the best efforts of police,
no charges have ever been laid and the case remains unsolved to this day. The Wanda case
contains many more questions than answers. What drew Marianne and Christine to the Wanda sandhills
that day? Had they prearranged to meet someone? Or were they just in the wrong place at the wrong
time? Speculation and many different theories have surrounded the case since day one. Only
one thing is clear: a vicious and ruthless killer has never been brought to justice.
The Schmidt family migrated to Australia from Germany in 1958. Along with Marianne there were
her parents, Helmut and Elisabeth, older brother Helmut Junior, younger brothers Hans, Peter and
Wolfgang and a younger sister Trixie. Another brother, Norbert, was born whilst the family was
in Australia. Upon their arrival, they stayed in various migrant camps and then they finally
settled in their family home in Brush Road, West Ryde, in the northwest of Sydney. The Schmidts
moved next door to Christine Sharrock, who was living in Brush Road with her grandparents,
Jim and Jeanette Haigh. Christine's father had recently passed away and her mother had
remarried and so Christine elected to live with her grandparents. Christina and Marianne formed
an instant bond. They were always in each other's company, they were inseparable. Christine's uncle
described of their friendship "They did not go out much and their main interest was centered around
their homes. They were always in each other's company and neither went out with boys' . Both
girls were described as quiet, well-behaved, they were good in school, they attended church
regularly with their parents, they weren't known to hang around any unsavory characters. They're
even described as being somewhat shy. In 1964, Helmut Senior passed away. One can only imagine
how much tighter the bond between Christine and Marianne would have become, both losing fathers
they were close to at such a young age. Like any other teenage girls they had a love of the beach,
they had an interest in music, special mention for Elvis, and of course the keen natural interest in
boys their own age. The only Beach Marianne and Christine ever visited was Cronulla. Whilst the
journey to Cronulla Beach took around two hours each way, it was the only Sydney beach that was
accessible by train at the time. The girls had attended Cronulla beach just recently on
New Year's day that year in 1965, only days before their murder. Whilst they were at Cronulla Beach,
they went for a walk north to the Wanda sandhills. The next day, Marianne visited the beach again
with her brothers and sisters. Christine didn't make that trip and on this second trip, Marianne
left their family for a little while and when she returned she'd mentioned that she went for a walk
to Wanda. She didn't say why. In early January 1965, Elisabeth Schmidt, Marianne's mother was
admitted to hospital to undergo an operation. She left her eldest children, Helmut Jr and Marianne,
in charge of the household while she was in hospital recovering. On the 9th of January,
Christine and Marianne visited Elisabeth in hospital. Marianne asked if her and Christine
could take her younger brothers and sisters to Cronulla beach the following day. Elisabeth gave
them permission to do so. As it turned out the weather that next day on the 10th of January was
terrible and so Marianne and Christine postponed their beach trip until the following day,
Monday the 11th of January. Now in the morning of the 11th whilst getting ready for the beach,
Christine mentioned to her grandmother Jeanette that it would be fun to walk along the sandhills
again. Jeannette, aware of how far away the Wanda sandhills actually were from the main
part of Cronulla beach, some two kilometres, replied "Don't go today love, you've got the four
little ones with you, it's too far". Christine tried to argue the point but was again told
by her grandmother "Don't go to the sandhills". So what are the Wanda sandhills and what were the
girls seemingly fascination with them? The sandhills, otherwise known as Green Hills,
run behind Wanda beach and continue north up to Kurnell. Wanda is an aborioginal name meaning
"sandhills by the sea beach". Wanda beach is part of a longer stretch of beach coastline
that starts with Cronulla beach includes North Cronulla beach, Elouera beach and then Wanda
beach. The distance from the main Cronulla beach to the Wanda sandhills is about two kilometers,
and then the sandhills themselves run a lot longer past that. The area in and around Wanda
surf club and the main beach area itself were clean and pristine but the Wanda sandhills were
a very different, isolated story. In 1965, Wanda sandhills were described as Sydney's filthiest and
loneliest stretch of beach. Littered with smashed bottles, old shoes, rusted cans, broken toys any
other amount of discarded junk and rubbish that you can think of. This isolation meant the Wanda
sandhills were a perfect spot for people to meet up who didn't necessarily want to be seen. In 1965
it was a far, far more conservative time than what we experience today. I mean, incredibly,
homosexuality was actually a criminal offense and it wouldn't be made legal for another 18 years.
Certain parts of those sandhills were a popular location for men to meet up and engage in casual
sex. The area was also known to attract nude sunbathers, other couples engaging in public sex,
public masturbators, nudists, general perverted types who liked to spy on people engaging in
sexual activity, who liked to spy on women, who liked to harass women and proposition them for
sex, things like that. Cars could be parked behind the sandhills and there were a number
of trails that provided access to and from the sandhills without having to walk along the main
beach areas. Many local residents of the time were well aware of what was going on in the sandhills
and they refused to even let their children anywhere near there. It doesn't sound like the
ideal place for two well-behaved, generally quiet type fifteen-year-old girls to go but remember
Christina and Marianne weren't from the local area, not even really close, it was a two-hour
journey each way. Although local residents were well aware of what was going on there, it doesn't
mean Marianne and Christine were aware. It was 1965 after all, information wasn't as readily
available and it didn't travel nearly as fast as what it does today. There's absolutely no
information to suggest that Marianne and Christine were aware of what went on in those sandhills at
all. So on the morning of the 11th of January, Christine and Marianne packed for their day at
the beach. Christine packed a thermos of cordial, but she took no food.She instead took a one pound
note and said that she would buy lunch. Marianne made sandwiches and packed some fruit. This
information would become crucial later on. When they were all set around 8:30 a.m. Christine,
Marianne, Marianne's younger brothers Peter, Wolfgang and Norbert, and her younger sister
Trixie, made the walk to West Ryde train station. Peter was aged ten, Wolfgang seven, Norbert five,
and her sister Trixie was nine. Her brothers Helmut Jr and Hans selected to stay at home and
complete some household chores. They caught the train from West Ryde to Redfern, and at
Redfern they would have to change trains to go to Cronulla. It was on this first part of the journey
between West Ryde and Redfern that a 15 year old male, only described as being tall, struck
up a conversation with Marianne and Christine. It's unknown what they talked about but when
they arrived at Redfern station and had to change trains, the boy who struck up that conversation
remained on the train, he didn't follow them. They didn't talk to anyone else on their journey. They
finally arrived at Cronulla Beach around 11 a.m. and when they arrived they were met by the news
that Cronulla beach was closed due to dangerous seas and strong winds. If only they had turned
around and gone home, but they didnt. They headed to the Southern end of Cronulla beach, hanging
out around the rocks, and Wolfgang kept pestering Marianne that he wanted to go for a swim. Finally,
she gave in and took him to a shallow, more secluded spot for a quick dip. They then rejoined
the others and they ate lunch at the rocks. At some time while they were at the rocks, Wolfgang
saw Marianne and Christine talking to a boy. He was described as being 16 years old, medium build,
long, fair hair. And he was hunting for crabs at the time with a homemade spear. Wolfgang couldn't
hear what they were talking about. Shortly after they ate lunch, Marianne suggested going for a
walk up to the sandhills at Wanda. The others agreed, so they left their belongings at the
rocks and all walked north, beginning their two kilometre journey to the sandhills. But as they
got to Wanda Beach, the walk had become too much for the younger children. The wind was howling,
it was whipping up the sand, stinging their legs. So Wolfgang found a spot that was sheltered from
the wind. Marianne and Christine told the younger kids to stay put and they would go back south to
grab their belongings from the rocks so they could organize to start heading home. They mentioned
they;d be about 20 minutes. But clearly Marianne and Christine had no intention of going home just
yet. Instead of walking south to where their gear was, they continued north to the sandhills. Peter
yelled out "You're going the wrong way!", the girls just looked back and laughed and kept
walking into the sandhills. That's the last time Norbert, Peter and Trixie ever saw Christine and
Marianne alive. After about 10 minutes, Peter sent Wolfgang to look for the girls. Wolfgang walked to
the sandhills and it's here that he sees Marianne and Christine talking to a boy. He describes this
boy as being a big boy, aged sixteen, long, fair hair and white cream on his nose. Carrying a blue
towel, wearing light grey trousers. He didn't have a shirt on and he was quite suntanned.
So basically he described him as a "surfy" looking type boy. Wolfgang says that the surfy
boy looked angry and he was asking the girls their names. He decided against following them
any further and the girls disappeared with the male into the sandhills. About 10 minutes later,
Wolfgang saw the surfy teen walking back out of the sandhills. He was alone, there was no sign of
the girls. He now had the blue towel tied around his neck. Wolfgang actually asked the surfy "Where
are the girls?" but he didn't answer and he just walked straight past him. And did Peter, Trixie
or Norbert every report seeing this surfy teen? Wolfgang's story of this encounter is the subject
of much debate. It actually changed a few times and sort of evolved over several interviews. He
kept adding vital pieces of information as time went on. Now, there could be many reasons why this
happened, but it was a source of frustration for detectives at the time, and as such,
Wolfgang's version had been treated with a little bit of skepticism. We can only speculate why the
girls walked into the sandhills that day. They were obviously determined to go there,
Christine had mentioned that to her grandmother that morning and her grandmother told her not
to go. It was a two kilometre walk with young children in howling wind, poor weather conditions,
it makes that two kilometers that much more longer. And not only that the actual sandhills
themselves stretched for kilometers further past that point. This convinced many people that they
had planned to meet someone at the sandhills that day, certainly that was the initial police
theory that they went with in the early stages of the investigation. One factor though is that
Christin and Marianne had originally planned to go to the beach the day before, if you remember they
canceled due to poor weather and their plans had changed. They were now there on Monday. If they
were planning to meet someone pre-arranged, it wasn't as easy to reschedule back then as it is
today with mobile phones and social media, so if they were in fact planning to meet someone
in those sandhills that day, it's far more likely that they met that someone that day,
Monday the 11th of January. After Wolfgang lost sight of Christine and Marianne, a witness,
Dennis Dostine, described seeing the girls hurry through the sandhills. Dennis is actually the
last known person to see the girls alive. He says Christine and Marianne were walking fast,
they appeared to be in a hurry. They were about eight hundred metres away from where
their bodies were found at the time. One of the girls was constantly looking over her shoulder
as if someone was following them. Dennis had a bit of a look but he couldn't see anyone,
didn't seem suspicious so he didn't think too much more of it. While Marianne and Christine
were gone, Wolfgang, Norbert, Peter and Trixie continued to wait. After a while Peter, Trixie,
Wolfgang had another look around for the girls, they couldn't find them, there was no trace of
them. At no stage did Wolfgang make mention with the surfy teen. After a few hours of waiting,
they became aware time was slipping away. The last train out of Cronulla was at 6 p.m. and they had
to get there, so they made the journey back down to the southern end of Cronulla beach they found
their belongings where they had left them on the rocks, they were untouched. They made the last
train out of Cronulla in the right home at about 8 p.m. Helmut Jr. and Christine's grandparents
were made aware of Christine and Marianne's disappearance and the police were called.
No major alarm bells went off for the police who attended to take the missing persons'
report. They arrived just before midnight. Two fifteen-year-old girls, the best of friends,
they were out for a day at the beach, they walked off under no duress or threat, they were happy,
they were laughing. The usual questions would have been asked. Have they done this before? Is there
anywhere you think they might be? Could they be at a friend's place? Do they have boyfriends? Of
some concern though for police was that it was out of character for them. They had happy home lives,
they were well behaved, they had never run off before so they're not the types just to sort of
go missing without letting anyone know where they were, and especially to leave four young children
at the beach alone. The report was broadcast to all police stations in the Sydney area. Of course
the police around Cronulla and the surrounding patrols would have been paying much more attention
than the other. And just imagine how different it was back then in 1965. There's no mobile phones
to track, no social media accounts to check, no instant media releases that could go viral and
keep the public on the lookout, there was none of that. But even if all that modern technology
was in existence, it would have been too late. Christine and Marianne were already dead. About
2:30 p.m. on the 12th of January 1965, Peter Smith aged 17 was walking through the sandhills with his
two young young nephews. He saw what he initially thought was a store mannequin lying in the sand,
he went in and had a closer look and it was there that the grim reality of what he had
found became clear. Filled with shock, horror, panic Peter ran to Wanda Surf Club. It's about
1,500 meters away to the south. He notified the caretaker Barry that he'd found the dead body
of a young girl and he asked to use a phone so he could call police. Police arrived, they met Peter
at Wanda Surf Club and then he led them up to the burial site. On closer inspection of the scene it
was noticed by a police officer that there were three feet sticking out from the sand, not two,
and the already horrific discovery became that much more horrific when it was discovered that
there were two bodies, not one. Now, they weren't really buried as such, it was just sort of covered
with sand and not that deep - the wind overnight had blown the sand off. Local Cronulla detectives
soon notified the Criminal Investigation Branch and more specialist detectives made their way to
Wanda, including the initial officer in charge of the case Detective Inspector Haines. The director
of forensic medicine Dr. Lang and his assistant Dr. Brighton also attended. They thoroughly
examined the crime scene and portable lighting had to be brought in so they could continue their work
into the night. It didn't take long for police to link the gruesome discovery to the missing person
report of Christine and Marianne, and not long after this a positive identification was made.
The crime scene itself was two sandhills back from where they started on the beachside, 150
meters from the water's edge and about 1500 meters north of Wanda surfclub. Despite not being at the
beach that day, Hans Schmidt visited the scene later on and he had this to say about it. "The
place that girls were killed was very isolated even though it was only two dunes back from the
beach. It was so quiet I couldn't even hear the waves crashing. You could scream your head off and
no one would hear a thing, no one could have heard the girls screaming for help." Blood and signs of
a struggle were located 32 meters away from where the bodies lay and there was a drag mark going all
the way from this side back to where Christine and Marianne were. An examination of the scene led the
detective inspector Haynes to say this "It looks as though the Schmidt girl was knocked down and
then stabbed. Christine was killed about 20 yards away and her body was then dragged back to where
the Schmidt girl lay". It's believed Christine witnessed Marianne being attacked and then ran
off only to be caught a short distance away. At intervals of about every three meters along the
drag marks, there were much heavier concentrations of blood. These heavier concentrations were
consistent with the person who was dragging the body stopping for a rest. Christine was slim,
described as a petite girl, so the implication here was clear, whoever was dragging her may not
have been that physically strong. Detectives also located car tracks about 30 meters west from where
Christine was attacked, showing the killer could have fled the scene in a vehicle, although it's
not known if these tracks were related. The killer could have also easily escaped over the back of
the sandhills towards Captain Cook Drive where he could have disappeared without ever being back
on the main beach area. The post-mortem of the girls was conducted by the director of forensic
medicine Dr. Lang at the city morgue. Both Christine and Marianne were savagely attacked,
it was one of the most horrific crimes, if not the most horrific crime Australia had ever seen.
The attack was so savage that the full details were never released to the public. Christine's
official cause of death was hemorrhage as a result of penetrating wounds to the chest,
associated with the fracture of the skull and injury to the brain. Marianne's official cause
of death was from hemorrhage as a result of a cut throat and penetrating wounds to the chest.
There were also clear signs both girls had been sexually assaulted. Christine's pants had been
removed and Marianne's swimming costume had been cut and rolled up, exposing the lower
half of her bod. A semen sample was also found. The time of death was estimated to be between 2
p.m. and midnight on Monday the 11th of January. The exact time was difficult to pinpoint exactly
as they've been covered by hot sand. It was discovered that Christine had undigested cabbage
and celery in her stomach which she would have had to have eaten within one hour of her death.
This immediately stood out as the girls that only taken sandwiches and fruit to the beach,
and cabbage and celery weren't on the sandwiches. As well as this, it was revealed that Christine
had a blood alcohol reading of 0.015 which would have been enough to have had a midi of beer
or a nip of spirits just prior to her death. Although it also could have been the result of
her consuming several drinks in the hours leading up to her death, it was impossible to know which.
Christine was not known to ever drink and her family stated that she never touched alcohol.
Her mother said that she couldn't even stand the smell of it. They were horrified. Loud alarm bells
were going off here. The food found in Christine's stomach was different to what they had brought
to the beach and they certainly didn't take any alcohol with them. The food in Christine's stomach
was consumed within one hour of her death, meaning it's likely that Christine shared food and alcohol
with the killer. As a result of the post-mortem, police were of the belief that they were looking
for a fishing knife. They were also looking for a heavy, blunt instrument that was used
to inflict the injuries on Christine, such as a rock, a lump of wood or a piece of metal pipe.
Wolfgang, Peter, Trixie and Norbert were questioned extensively. On the 13th of January,
they were taken back to the sandhills by police to retrace their steps and to try and get them to
recall as much information as they possibly could. It's here that detectives first learned that
Wolfgang saw the surfy teen talking to Christine and Marianne just before they disappeared into the
sandhills. Now remember Wolfgang kept changing his story as the weeks went on and kept adding
in vital clues. Well, he later revealed that the surfy teen he had seen with Christine and Marianne
was in actual fact the same boy hunting for crabs he had seen them talking to earlier in the day at
the rocks, so the southern end of the beach. About a month later in another interview he added that
the surfy teen had a knife in a pouch around his waist when he walked off with the girls and when
he walked back out of the sandhills alone that knife was missing. Why his story changed numerous
times is anyone's guess, but it's not at all surprising that his memory was a bit muddled up.
Remember his father had just died, his mother had just had a serious operation and was in hospital,
his sister had just been brutally murdered and he was right there. The amount of stress, trauma,
fear, grief, guilt, any other number of emotions that you could think of, that seven-year-old
Wolfgang would have been experiencing is something that most people wouldn't even be able to begin
to imagine. He was most likely in severe shock. There's no such thing as grief counseling back
then, it was a much different time, people were just expected to suck it up and get on with it,
so is it any wonder that his memory was a bit muddled up? But the surfy teen information from
Wolfgang was the first breakthrough for detectives and the hunt for the teen surfy suspect began.
Every media report, whether on TV, radio or in print, was dominated with reports of the teen
surfy suspect seen with the girls just prior to their death. Now the problem with that description
is that it matched just about every teenager in the Cronulla area and not only the Cronulla area,
a lot of areas. So it didn't narrow down the search any more than saying police we're looking
for a teenager would have. Police were quick to try and make point that they didn't necessarily
believe the teen surfy suspect was the killer, the fear being that people who are at the beach
that day who might have saw something that didn't fit with the teen surfy scenario wouldn't come
forward. It didn't take long for police to be swamped with calls and information about the
teen surfy. They received hundreds of calls a day. It was even revealed that a teen matching
that description was kicked off Wanda beach only a few days before the killings for harassing young
girls. The media ran wild and Police Commissioner Norman Allen made a public appeal for that surfy
teen to come forward. The hunt for the surfy teen was in full swing leading to the media reporting
that four suspects had been detained and were being questioned, one as far away as Queensland.
The truth was that they were never really suspects at all and the teenagers had just been arrested on
other minor charges. The fact that they may have looked like surfies was enough for the media to
label them suspects. It was basically the media was just trying to get one up on each other for
the latest scoop, the breaking story. A mammoth search of the crime scene and surrounding Wanda
sandhills area commenced. Police were sent from all over Sydney to help and even police
trainees were sent in to help. The search wasn't easy. Remember the sandhills were described as
Sydney's filthiest Beach, littered with all sorts of discarded rubbish.This hampered the
search for clues greatly. Several items were located including shoes and even some knives,
but they were quickly ruled out as having anything to do with the murders. By Thursday police had
secured a front-end loader from Sutherland Shire Council so they could dig up the sand which they
then put through a makeshift sieve. Army experts with metal and mine detectors were even sent in to
help search. Police ended up digging 500 tonnes of sand and found very little to assist their
investigation. The only piece of physical evidence that was ever located was a broken piece of knife
blade. It was about one inch long and had a clear cutting edge. It was thought to be from a kitchen
knife. The piece of knife tested positive for blood however there was an insufficient amount to
conduct any further testing at the time. Dr. Lang would later testify at the inquest that the stab
wounds would have been difficult to inflict with this particular piece of broken blade,
although he did say that some cut marks on Christine could have been made with a knife
that had a portion of blade missing. It was unclear if this piece of blade was in fact part
of the murder weapon which had been broken off, such was the savage nature of the attacks, or
if it was completely unrelated. It was 1965, DNA forensic evidence wasn't a known thing until 1986,
twenty-one years after the Wanda Beach murders. On the 15th of January, Elisabeth Schmidt broke her
silence. She was still in hospital recovering from her operation, doctors had let her leave
for a short time to comfort her children when the news broke of Marianne's death however she
was now back. She said "My daughter and the other young girl have gone into eternal life. They have
met their maker and have therefore entered a new phase of existence. The person responsible,
the murderer, has his life ahead of him. How he faces this life is something I can not answer,
but his life would appear to be, spiritually speaking, poorer than anything else. He would
always be hunted and haunted. The man responsible should meet his punishment and I think my husband
would have felt the same way. He should be made responsible for his action." At this
time Commissioner Allen renewed his appeal for the surfy teen to come forward. In a
press conference he said, "I renew my appeal to the youth described by Wolfgang Schmidt
to come forward. He should not be influenced by published statements, he could very well clear the
air for us in our investigations". The published statements referred to of course being the media
reports saying that surfy teen was the killer. The appeals from Commissioner Allen continued
and just the next day he made yet another one. "I renew my appeal to this youth to come forward and
tell us what happened last Monday. Because he was seen coming away alone from the scene, it
does not necessarily follow that he's the killer". He stressed the police are of the belief that he
was quite possibly an innocent bystander at the wrong place at the wrong time and it would not
take long for police to clear him of suspicion, if he would just come in and talk to them. The police
really wanted to catch up with the surfy teen. By this stage, police had commenced interviewing
people who were at the beach on Monday the 11th of January. Over 20 people who were there had
been interviewed. More than 40 detectives had been assigned full-time for the case, in what was one
of the biggest manhunts Australia had ever seen. Reports were continuing to come in from people
all over the state and even all over the country of people matching the description of surfy teen
that they were suspicious of or suspected had involvement. Police received thousands upon
thousands of calls and they struggled to keep up with the sheer volume of information that
was coming in. Many feel that a vital tip off or a vital piece of information may have been lost
amongst the thousands of calls that were received. Both Christine and Marianne had kept diaries and
through those diaries police learned that on their visit to the beach on New Year's Day, just a few
days before their death, they met two boys who they'd shared kisses with. On the 16th of January,
police made a public appeal for those two boys to come forward and they did. They were only known as
Ted and Jim. They were interviewed by police and confirmed that they had met Marianne and
Christine at the beach on New Year's day, however they had made no plans to meet again. Their alibis
checked out and they were quickly ruled out of the investigation. On the 18th of January,
the media ran wild that a teenager who had a pair of blood stained trousers was being
held by police. A pair of blood stained trousers were found on Coogee beach and they were later
identified as being the teenager who was being held. Wolfgang was hurried to Randwick police
station where a line-up was conducted but Wolfgang could not identify him as the surfy
teen. And it turned out that this teenager who was being held had a simple explanation for the
blood on his trousers, and it was discovered he wasn't at Wanda beach on the day of the murders.
He was quickly released. Detectives were being flooded with not only tip-offs about surfy teen,
but they were also being flooded with information about several other suspicious males who were seen
at the beach on the day of the killings and the day leading up to them. A sketch artist
was brought in to try and assist putting some names to the descriptions. It was on the 18th
of January that police made their first appeal to the public for the boy hunting crabs that day to
come forward. Now, the description they released of the boy hunting crabs is pretty much identical
to surfy teen and remember Wolfgang would go on to say that they were one in the same person.
On the 20th of January, separate funeral services were held for Marianne and Christine. The service
for Marianne was held in the West Chapel of the Metropolitan funeral home at Burwood and she was
then cremated at Rookwood Crematorium. The service for Christine was held at St Michael's Catholic
Church Meadowbank and she was then buried at Liverpool Cemetery near her father. Both services
attracted hundreds of mourners. Detectives and police photographers also attended both services.
They were working on the theory that the girls knew their killer and had arranged to meet him at
the sandhills and they hoped that surfy teen may have been at the funerals. Just about every
male in attendance was photographed for later reference. At the service of Marianne Schmidt,
two teenage sisters were separated and interviewed separately by detectives. The father of these two
sisters had just alerted police that they may have valuable information concerning the background of
Marianne and Christine and they hadn't realized the value of the information until now. Of course,
detectives were on high alert and they swiftly interviewed the girls but unfortunately no light
was thrown on the investigation. By this stage police had started to sort through some of the
sheer volume of information that was coming through and there were two people who they
were particularly interested in talking to early on. These people were seen by Denis Dostine, who,
if you remember, was the last known person to have seen that girl's alive. Along with seeing
the girls walk through the hills that day, he also saw a number of other people. Two of particular
interest to police were a tall, pale, 19 year-old male and an older male described to be between 40
and 50 years old with a stocky build and tanned, leathery skin. Despite their best efforts, police
were never able to identify these two males and they never came forward. Another witness, Francis
Williams, 57 years old, was at the beach that day. He came forward and he described seeing Christine,
Marianne and the younger children at about 1:00 p.m. walking together north along the beach
towards Wanda. They were about 100 meters north of Wanda surf club at the time. Francis thought that
they look to be in a hurry walking quite quickly. Along with the children, Francis also described
seeing a number of other people in and around Wanda that day. He saw a male who was sunbathing
in the sandhills and as Francis approached him he got up, shook sand off him and walked away towards
Wanda surf club. He saw two young boys playing on the beach, two people fishing on the beach,
a man who was sunbaking with what was described as "a piece of corrugated iron" over his head. The
media ran wild and he became a suspect at the time too. It was assumed "Oh, he's obviously perverted,
using the corrugated iron to hide himself, spying on girls or whatever", but remember it was a
windy day. Poor weather. He might have just been blocking the sand out of his eyes that was being
blown in from the wind, but he was of interest to police. There was also a woman who had become
bogged behind the sandhills and she was assisted by Francis and another unknown male who drove
off in it utility. So not only were they getting reports of suspicious people sighted around Wanda
that day, but they were getting reports about a lot of other people who were at the beach that
day who were not necessarily suspicious, but they were there, they may have seen something and these
people weren't coming forward, they weren't making themselves known. It was frustrating
police. So they actually released details of these eight people that Francis saw to the media and
the woman who became bogged in the sand actually came forward but she wasn't able to assist in the
investigation. Unfortunately they never identified any of the seven other people. So many people were
at the beach that day who never came forward. Remember what Wanda sandhills was renowned for
at this time, but there's no suggestion that all those people were involved in that sort of
behavior. I mean, there was two people fishing, there was two kids playing. It's unknown why so
many people never came forward. Whether they were too scared to come forward or they didn't
want to get involved, they thought they didn't see anything so it was a waste of time, but you never
know. Something that they saw that they may have thought was insignificant may have been vital.
On the 22nd of January an interesting article was published in The Sydney Morning Herald.
The article was only very small, buried back on page 10, by now other news had started to
sort of filter through to the front pages, such as the health of Winston Churchill and
the Rolling Stones visit to Australia, but it was here buried amongst other articles a small
headline read "Wanda victims claim lapses". The article details that Marianne Schmidt was
struck by a car on the corner of Victoria Road and Brush Road at Ryde on the 7th of May 1964.
She suffered a fractured skull and spent nine days in hospital. As a result of that accident,
the family had submitted a compensation claim seeking £20,000. Australia was still using the
pound currency at the time. The relative sum of money of £20,000 back then in today's money would
be somewhere around half a million dollars. Quite a significant sum of money. The claim was due to
be heard later that year in 1965, however as a result of her death the claim lapsed and it would
not proceed any further. Police were starting to become frustrated by the inability to identify
the surfy teen and their inability to identify a number of other people at the beach that day
and their lack of cooperation in coming forward to assist the investigation. On the 22nd of January,
Commissioner Norman Allen made yet another appeal to the public. He said, "I have on more than one
occasion asked the public to assist in every way within their power with information which
might help detectives engaged on the case. I now make a further and equally sincere appeal.
I do this because I am satisfied that there must be some persons in the community who would have
some information that they have not brought to the notice of police. It is not unreasonable to
assume that someone somewhere in our community has seen or heard something which would be of great
assistance in this matter. For example, since this crime a person may not have been seen in places he
used to frequent or there may have been a change in pattern of his normal activity and behavior.
It is possible that to someone's knowledge, he has said or done something which would give rise to a
reasonable suspicion that he might have been in some way associated with the crime. That is the
type of vital information we would like to get". On the 23rd of January, a sketch was published
in the papers of the Wanda beach and sandhills area showing the crime scene and the different
locations where each of the seven people were thought to be that was sighted by Francis Williams
who still hadn't come forward. That is, the woman who had was bogged in the sand, she actually came
forward, the people fishing, the boys playing in the sand, etc, the male with the corrugated iron.
This did generate a response from the public and it resulted in a number of other people coming
forward who were there that day that didn't realize just how close to the crime scene they
actually were, however it didn't help in tracking down any of the seven people that Francis Williams
sighted. About this time, a psychiatrist released a report revealing their thoughts on the killer.
They believed that he lived in the local area and had intimate knowledge of the sandhills and
could even be one of the perverts who frequented the Wanda sandhills. Now this information being
released to the media obviously wouldn't have encouraged any of the people that were there, who
may have been engaging in that type of behavior, to come forward. I mean they would have thought
that they were gonna be held responsible for the crime. The psychiatrist went on to describe the
killer as most likely being a loner who had spent on Wanda sandhills spying on nude sunbathers and
people having sex. They felt that the killer committed the crimes on impulse rather than it
being planned out and that he may have acted out on previous urges he'd been experiencing,
when he saw Marianne and Christine walking alone through the sandhills. The investigation continued
but there was still no big breaks. It was hampered by the lack of physical evidence at the scene,
the lack of witnesses, the inability to identify the people that were seen at the beach and the
unwillingness of those people to come forward. To try and combat this, on the 29th of January,
the New South Wales Premier Mr. Jack Renshaw announced a £10,000 reward for any information
leading to the arrest and conviction for the person responsible for the murders. The currency
changed to dollars soon after this reward was announced and so the reward was changed
to $20,000. The relative sum of money today would be about $250,000, so it was a significant reward.
It was hoped that it would encourage people who were at the beach that day who either couldn't
be bothered or came from the groups of people who didn't want to be known by police to come
forward. That reward is still in existence today but, incredibly, it has never been increased,
it still stands at $20,000 so it might be time for that figure to come up. Two girls who were riding horses on the beach that day came forward and they reported yet
another suspicious male. They said that about 400 metres away from the murder scene, they saw a male
walking around in the nude through the sandhills. One of the girls yelled out to him "What are you
doing?" but he didn't answer, he just ignored them and kept walking.He was carrying the clothes in
his hand. So yet another person was added to the list of suspicious people at the beach that day
and like the others he was never identified either. He obviously never came forward. On
the 1st of February, police thought they had what was their first major breakthrough in the
case discovering an important piece of evidence, or so they thought at the time. By this stage,
police had been placed permanently in the Wanda sandhills keeping watch. It was hoped that some of
the people that had been seen at the beach on the day of the murders that hadn't yet come forward
would be sighted or even hoped that the surfy teen would show up again. Now, of course, they weren't
in uniform, they were dressed as sunbathers, so they were undercover if you will. Now a police
officer on sandhill watch located a blue towel washed up on shore. Of course the surfy teen
described by Wolfgang was carrying a blue towel, so the towel was immediately sent for scientific
testing, and it was hoped that this towel was the one belonged to surfy teen, described by Wolfgang,
but all it was was another frustrating dead-end. A thirteen-year-old boy came forward when news broke
of the towel in the media he identified it as one that had lost at the beach only a few days before.
The large reward that was put up by the New South Wales government was leading to all types
of people calling in. The investigation started to become very frustrated by false leads, dead ends,
hoax calls, false confessions, wives ringing up about their husbands, all sorts of things and
by now anyone who resembled a surfy teen had a phone call made to police about them. And while
no doubt most of the calls being made to police were well intentioned, the truth of the matter is,
it was hindering the investigation. Every lead, every call that came in had to be chased down,
followed up and that's where it's thought that vital information that was actually important
to the case could be lost amongst the pile of useless information that was coming in.
In April on the 19th, two 15 year-old girls were attacked near Caringbah train station - it's only
a short distance away from Cronulla. The girls were walking together near the train station
when a 15 year-old male grabbed one of them. The girls immediately screamed and frightened the
attacker off. The description was very similar to that of the surfy teen provided by Wolfgang.
So that certainly pushed the already frightened community further to the edge but the fact that
the community was so much on edge, I mean, this could have been totally unrelated to the Wanda
case. It could have been any random teenager just approaching two girls to say hello or
whatever and grabbed the one of them and they've screamed and everyone's run off. He didn't produce
a knife or anything like that. The full details of the attack were never released so it's unclear
exactly what happened, but no one was injured certainly. By April, police had waded through
the sheer volume of information that had come in and it led to the release of six sketches who they
considered suspects and that they really wanted to speak to. This included men making sexual
advances and comments towards women, the naked man seen walking through the sandhills, another
men exposing himself to women a few months after the murders on the beach and of course the boy
who had just attacked the two girls at Caringbah. Wolfgang was unable to help police with the sketch
of the surfy teen as he was just too agreeable. Everything the sketch artist said, he would go
along with, so it was impossible to make a sketch. But of particular interest to police out of the
six men were two men who they thought would most be valuable to the investigation, that they really
wanted to identify. The first came to be known as "the fat man". So he was described as a medium
to plump build, between 25 and 35 years old, about 5 feet 11 inches tall, slightly foreign in
appearance. He was described as carrying an orange and white towel, wearing grey trousers and a white
shirt. He was carrying a radio and a newspaper at the time. What he did, he approached several
women on the beach on the day of the murders and on the days leading up to the murders. He had
pornographic magazines with him and he was making inappropriate comments to women asking if they
wanted to have a look through the magazine, asking them how the sex was in Sydney. He mentioned that
he was from South Australia, so police were very, very keen to catch up with him but he,
along with so many others, was never identified and he never came forward. Another man who was
of particular interest to police was described as being 18 to 20 years old with a slim build,
light brown hair and he was wearing a long sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of fawn (coloured) shorts
and he had missing teeth. He was also making inappropriate propositions to women, asking to
have sex with women, offering them money, things like that, but again he was never identified
either. So it's starting to get ridiculous now the amount of people that police wanted to speak to,
who they deemed to be suspicious, who were at the beach on the day the murders, that were never
identified and who never came forward. You'd think that they would come forward given what happened,
the brutal nature of the crimes but no. They're out there somewhere, who knows if they're still
alive, but if they are nows the time. On the 29th of May, a group of youths came forward saying that
they'd found a pair of flippers and a homemade crab spear about one kilometer away from where
the girls were located. Now they found these only a few days after the murder, so it's not clear why
they waited until the 29th of May to come forward and hand it in. I couldn't find that anywhere,
but regardless they made themselves known to police and the flippers and the spear were
handed in. Wolfgang was reinterviewed but he was unable to identify the spear, he couldn't
remember if it was the same one that the boy who was crabbing on the rocks that spoke to Marianne
and Christine was using. It was a promising lead but it didn't end up going anywhere.
The investigation really started to stall and by the beginning of 1966 the amount of full-time
detectives on the case had dropped from 40 down to 8. It was still being worked hard but they were
just frustrated by the lack of ability to identify a number of people at the beach, the amount of
useless information that was still coming in, that they were wasting their time, basically. Police
were still assigned to the Wanda sandhills to watch for anything suspicious, but all that ended
up in achieving was they arrested a number of people for sexual related offenses but it got them
no closer to identifying the killer. On the 29th of January 1966, another brutal murder shocked
the nation. 57 year-old Wilhelmina Kruger was found murdered at the Piccadilly shopping Arcade
in Wollongong where she worked as a cleaner. Wollongong is in close proximity to Wanda,
it's less than an hour's drive away. The murder was very horrific and it did bear similarities to
the Wanda case - that of a frenzied knife attack. There were no suspects, no witnesses, there was a
lack of physical evidence, no attempt was made to hide a body. It led many to believe the murder of
Wilhelmina Kruger was committed by the person responsible for Wanda and just weeks later on
the 26th of February the body of Anna Dowling-Koa was found on Old Illawarra Road, Menai, southwest
of Sydney. Again, in close proximity to both Wanda and Wollongong. She too had been the victim of a
brutal, frenzied knife attack, almost identical to the attack committed on Wilhelmina Kruger.
Anna was working as an escort at the time and she was last seen on the 16th of February 1966,
leaving a club in Kings Cross. She mentioned to a few friends in the club that she was going to
meet a client and she was never seen alive again. There was no witnesses, no suspects,
a lack of physical evidence, no attempt made to hide the body. In actual fact, the killer returned
to where Anna was dumped and dragged her body out from behind the bushes, closer to the road, so
she would be found. Police are almost certain the murders of Anna Dowling-Koa and Wilhelmina Kruger
were committed by the same person. It's never been proven that the Wanda case is linked to both those
murders but many suspect that they are. Just like the Wanda case, the murders of Wilhelmina Kruger
and Anna Dowling-Koa remain unsolved. On the 20th of April 1966, a coroner's inquest into the Wanda
case was held. The inquest was presided over by city coroner Mr. Looms. The amount of detectives
working the case full-time was now down to about 6. The investigation log totaled over 5,000 pages
and over 7,000 people had been interviewed. A large amount of witnesses gave evidence at the
inquest including the all-important Schmidt children. The inquest lasted three days,
concluding on the 22nd of April. Coroner Mr. Looms was of the belief that "there must be
somebody who could shed light on the murders". He went on to say police had already conducted
an exhaustive investigation, "although we still hope that it could be intensified if that was at
all possible". There was no doubt what happened in his mind, saying "The cause of death is very
evident. A vicious, brutal murder". After the inquest, police stated that they would
be revisiting every page of the police file in hopes of uncovering a vital piece of information
that may have been previously overlooked. Unfortunately they didn't uncover anything.
Police still held the belief that somebody out there knew something about the case and
that person was withholding information, either because they're protecting someone who was close
to them or they were in fear of that person they we're protecting. Or they were too embarrassed or
scared to come forward for whatever reason it was that they were at the sandhills that day.
The six sketches the police had released prior were made into full-size, lifelike dummies which
were displayed at the Sydney Easter show in 1967. It was hoped that the large crowds that poured
through the Easter Show every year would be able to put names to the faces but no one could. On the
17th of March '67, another woman was attacked at Wanda beach. 28 year old Brenda Gowan was
sunbathing on the beach with her three children when she was attacked by an unknown male person.
A witness, Trevor Betts, rushed to her aide and the attacker fled. He was seen leaving in what
was described as an "old, white vehicle". Both the descriptions of Brenda and Trevor fit the
description of one of the six sketches that had just been turned into life-sized dummies
at the Easter Show. Many were convinced that the Wanda Beach killer had just struck again. Despite
an extensive investigation and search for the attacker, he was never identified. Over the years
there's been three names that have been thrown up in the media as suspects for the Wanda beach case.
There's no real evidence that's ever been released linking any of them to the crime it's all sort of
circumstantial and maybe and what-ifs. The first is Alan Bassett. On Monday the 13th of June '66,
Alan Raymond Bassett from Unanderra, just south of Wollongong, was charged for the brutal murder of
Carolyn May Orphin. They met each other at a dance on Friday night the 10th of June and Carolyn and
Alan left together. Later that night, Alan tied Carolyn up, raped her and killed her and dumped
her on the side of the road. He was arrested a few days later and later convicted of murder.
He's thought to be a prime suspect for not only the Wanda case but the murders of Wilhelmina
Kruger and Anna Dowling-Koa. One detective became that obsessed with Alan as being the killer, that
he even visited him when he was retired trying to get him to confess. Alan Bassett was born in
England on the 3rd of May 1945. By all reports he seemed like a quiet and shy normal sort of guy.
He later told police in the courts, when he was being tried for the murder of Carolyn May Orphin,
that he had no idea what came over him and he didn't mean to kill her. This despite the
fact that she was tied up, strangled and hit over the head with a large rock. He asked to be found
guilty of manslaughter, that was obviously rejected and he was found guilty of murder.
He was given life in prison. Now this murder, no knife was used, so that is the glaring difference
between the Wanda beach murders and the murders of Mrs. Kruger and Ms. Dowling-Koa. However,
it was still a very savage and vicious attack. The savageness of that attack and the fact that
Alan was from Wollongong, only down the road from the Piccadilly Centre and a short drive to Menai
and Wanda, meant that he was obviously gonna be looked at as a suspect. Investigations by
police revealed that they thought Alan Bassett was actually in Cronulla around the time of the Wanda
Beach murders. The detective who became obsessed with Alan being responsible was Detective Cec
Johnson. He became so obsessed with the theory that many thought that it was an unhealthy
obsession. It was even eventually recommended that he resign from the force. After his conviction,
Alan Bassett was diagnosed as a schizophrenic and he ended up serving his time in a psychiatric
hospital up near Newcastle. So in his retirement, Detective Johnson paid regular visits to Alan and
was just basically trying to get him to confess, trying to talk to him about the unsolved murders,
he was convinced that he had his man. During this time, Alan presented detective Johnson with a
gift. It was, it's been described as a painting of a bush scene. Detective Johnson at the time
thought it was quite ugly and he didn't think too much of it and put it away for a few years,
but after a while he pulled it out and decided to get it framed and put it up. It was at this
time he looked at the painting a little bit more closely and whether or not it was
actually there or he was that obsessed he just wanted it to be there and started to see things,
he became convinced that it was a confession to the four unsolved murders. He said the painting
depicted a clue that only the murderer would know, however what this clue is no one knows,
it was never made public. Detective Johnson he went to the press with his theory and it got
widespread media coverage, he even started to write a book about it but unfortunately
he was killed in an accident just before the book was due to be released and it was
never released. He convinced a well-known crime reporter at the time, Bill Jenkings,
that Alan was his man as well. Some in the police force agreed with him, a lot didn't, they thought
he was sort of seeing things and his unhealthy obsession had just spiraled out of control.
One person of significant importance that was convinced by Detective Johnson's theory is
Alan Bassett's father. He actually went on public record to say that he believed Alan
was responsible for the Wanda Beach murders and that he should never be released. Despite those
pleas from his father, in 1995 Alan Bassett was released from custody and placed back into the
community after serving 29 years in custody. He denied any involvement in any crime other than
that of the murder of Carolyn Orphin for which he was convicted. In the year 2000, speculation still
circled around Alan's involvement and he made a public offer to provide a DNA sample to clear him
from the crime. It's unknown if police ever took him up on that or if the advances in technology
will one day be able to clear or convict Alan of the crime. There's another name that's thrown up
as a prime suspect for the Wanda Beach murders and that's Christopher Wilder. And in 1984 his death
in the United States sparked the interests of the New South Wales place and actually caused them to
reexamine the Wanda case to study any links that he may have had with Wanda. And the reason for
that is because he was a serial killer. He was also known as the "Beauty Queen Killer" - he'd
just killed eight women and suspected of killing more. Through the U.S he was on the top ten FBI
most wanted when he was killed in a confrontation with police. And the reason New South Wales police
were looking at him and any links to Wanda is because he was born in Sydney and that's where
he was living at the time of Wanda. So he was born in 1945 and he had his first major run-in with the
law as a 17-year old when he was charged for the gang rape of a woman at a Sydney Beach. He pled
down to a lesser charge and got off with probation and electric shock therapy. In 1968 he married and
that lasted all of a week before his wife left him claiming sexual and physical abuse. In 1969,
he lured a young 19 year-old nursing student into his car at Manly Beach and convinced her to pose
nude for a few photos. When that was done he tried to force her to have sex with him and when she
refused he threatened a blackmail her boss with the photos. She managed to get away and called
police but she refused to testify against him. Later that year he moved to the United States, his
father was from the US and that's how he was able to move over there. He moved to Florida and it
didn't take long for him to find some significant wealth over there due to booming construction and
real estate industries. In 1971, he had his first run-in with the law over there - caught trying
to entice women to pose for nude photographs as he'd done before. The next year he was actually
arrested for trying to force a 16 year-old girl to have sex with him but he was acquitted of
that charge. A few years after that, posing as a photographer, Wilder lured a schoolgirl out of a
shopping mall and he drugged her and raped her. He somehow managed to plea bargain that one down and
again was given probation and therapy. In 1982, he came back to Australia to visit his parents
and on that visit he abducted two 15 year-old girls, tied them up and forced them to pose for
nude photographs. He was arrested the next day and his parents managed to post a large amount of bail
for him, I think it was somewhere around $300,000. Incredibly he was allowed to leave Australia until
his trial so he could go back to the US for work. Not long after that in 1984, while still awaiting
trial back in Australia for the abduction charge, he commenced his murderous rampage across nine
different states of America, kidnapping a dozen women. Some were lucky enough to get away but he
murdered eight and he's actually suspected in more than that. His M.O. was to pose as a photographer,
comment about how beautiful a girl was and entice her out with him, convincing her that he'd be
able to get her into modeling, so it seems pretty obvious to many why Christopher Wilder is a prime
suspect for Wanda. He was 19 at the time, living in Sydney and he turned out to be a serial killer.
The one problem being his timeline of crimes doesn't seem to match up with Wanda. He started
off with a string of sexual offences and trying to get girls to pose nude before he committed his
first known murder in 1984. 19 years after the Wanda case, but that is if his first murder was
actually in 1984. Wilder is suspected of being involved in the abduction and suspected murder
of several women both in the United States and Australia, well before '84. Some remain convinced
that Wilder is the man for Wanda. Although he was slightly older than the surfy teen Wolfgang
described, his age is still in the ballpark and the actual physical description itself would have
matched Wilder at the time. When he was killed it was in a confrontation with police. He just
had a physical struggle with one officer who was wounded and then Wilder was shot not long after
that. It's unknown if he was shot as a result of a struggle or if he turned the gun on himself. Which
most people suspect is what happened. New South Wales police requested a blood sample after his
death and advances in technology may yet prove if he was or wasn't involved, but at the moment it's
very much circumstantial with no real evidence at all. Now if you do some reading on the Wanda case
there is one name that appears in bright flashing lights as being the prime suspect. He's also been
described as Australia's Hannibal Lecter, which tells you probably all you need to know about
him. He's considered by many to be not only the prime suspect in the Wanda case but also a
number of other unsolved child murders and child disappearances from the late 60s. That includes
the disappearance of the three Beaumont children from Adelaide on the 26th of January '66, the
murder of Allen Redston on the 27th of September '66 in Canberra, the murder of Simon Brooke on
the 18th of May '68 in Glebe, Sydney, and the disappearance of Linda Stilwell on the 10th
of August '68 from St. Kilda in Victoria. He's never been charged for any of these crimes but
he certainly has been questioned about them. He's never made any admissions but at the same time he
hasn't exactly denied involvement either. So who is Derek Percy? He was born in Strathfield, Sydney
on the 15th of September 1948. In 1956 he and his family moved down to Victoria where they stayed in
a few different places, and in '61 they moved to Mount Beauty in the northeast of Victoria. Derek
was as always known as a little bit different, a bit of a loner, a little hard to get to know.
In 1964 in the Mount Beauty area, women's underwear started to disappear off clotheslines
and even from inside some houses. The whispers around town were that Derek was responsible but it
was never proven. That is until later on that year in the summer of '64, when two of his schoolmates
made their way down to a popular local swimming hole. Along the way, they saw something that was
so twisted that no one believed their story - everyone thought they were just making it up.
That is until a few years later. What they saw was Derek walking around in a woman's petticoat.
Derek didn't see them and they didn't call out, instead they decided to hide and try and work out
what the hell he was doing. What they saw next was Derek pull out a knife and he started stabbing a
pair of women's underpants that he had with him. Once he was done there, he defecated in the river
and then walked off. The kids of course questioned Derek about it but he denied it and the other kids
and other people in the town didn't really believe the story. They knew Derek was a bit different but
that behavior seemed a bit quite a stretch. It was around this time that Derek started keeping
journals outlining sexual references towards children, so it's at this time that the beginnings
of an extremely dark twisted path started for Derek. In 1966, they moved to Khancoban,
New South Wales, just north of the Victorian border. Derek indecently assaulted two young
girls while living here. They were two sisters and they live next door to the Percy family - the
youngest was 6. Derek lured them into a caravan and got them to take their pants off. Percy was
actually caught out and for some reason the police weren't notified, instead the girl's
father left it to Derek's father to discipline him. Derek's diary entries continued to get darker
and increasingly violent. One diary entry made specific mention of a plan to kidnap two girls
and take them to a secluded place. He joined the Navy on the 25th of November 1967 and it
was while he was in the Navy he was arrested for the horrific murder of 12 year old Yvonne Tuohy.
Yvonne and her friend Shane, who was aged 11, decided to go for a walk and during this walk they
got separated. Derek pounced on Yvonne, he pulled out a knife and held her by knifepoint. Shane made
his way back and discovered what was going on. He produced the tomahawk that he was carrying to
chop firewood and he managed to escape, and it was his description of Derek and Derek's vehicle that
he'd seen him drive off in that was crucial and allowed police to arrest Derek only a few hours
after the abduction. He was arrested at nearby Flinders Naval Depot where he was based at the
time, listening to a radio reporter of Yvonne's disappearance, trying to wash her blood out of his
clothes. Unfortunately, when they caught up with Derek, Yvonne was already dead. The search of his
belongings revealed sickening journal entries and drawings depicting the rape, torture and murder
of children. He even had an entry detailing his desire to kidnap a young boy and girl just as he
had done or tried to do with Shane a few hours before. The murder was one of the worst that
detectives had seen, if not the worst and the facts are too horrible to go about in detail,
but in short, Yvonne was strangled, mutilated and sexually assaulted. Derek stood trial on the 2nd
of April 1970 at the Melbourne Supreme Court. After a six day trial he was found not guilty
by reason of insanity, but he was ordered to be kept in custody at the governor's leisure
which means indefinitely. And fortunately, that's where he remained until he died in 2013. Despite
being suspected of many other crimes, the murder of Yvonne Tuohy is the crime, the only crime,
that he was ever charged with. During his incarceration, many more drawings, diary entries
were found outlining his sick fantasies. One rape, torture and murder journal was so organized
that he even had an index for it. Names weren't even invented yet for the type of sickness and
depravity that was Derek Percy. He has since been described as a sadistic pedophile with a morbid
and sexual attraction for fecal matter, with killing being the ultimate sexual act for him.
Sounds like a good suspect for the Wanda beach murders, but to sum it up quickly I think it's
likely Derek Percy was responsible for some of the crimes he's suspected of, but not involved in
others. The main question for today is though, was Derek Percy involved in the Wanda beach murders?
There's no clear-cut answer, answers maybe. There's no clear evidence linking him to Wanda,
it's all very much circumstantial, and some of those circumstances that people rely on are the
fact that the Percy family had a keen interest in sailing. In actual fact in January 1965,
at the time of Wanda, the National Moth Class regatta was being held at Botany Bay Yacht Club,
which is not too far away from Wanda at all, and this is the very class of sailing that
the Percy's were interested in. It's suspected, but it's never been able to be proven, that the
Percy family were in Sydney for that regatta. Now Derek would have been 16 at the time and on top
of that if they were in Sydney they likely would have been staying at Derek's grandmother's place
in Denistone, which is the neighboring suburb to West Ryde, meaning to get to the beach on
train he would have been travelling the exact same train line as Marianne and Christine.
Now remember Marianne and Christine were approached by a teenage male on the train between
Ryde and Redfern and many suspect that that was Derek, although there's not much to go on, other
than that it was a teenage boy and that he was probably on the same train line if he was maybe in
Sydney, maybe staying at his grandmother's house. You see it's, there's nothing concrete. Also Derek
doesn't match the surfy teen description that Wolfgang provided but some claim that he was
a dead ringer for one of the six sketches that was released later on by police and turned into
life-sized dummies. It was also revealed that years later, when several of Derek's journals
were found, he had a newspaper article about the Wanda Beach murders with obscene comments written
on it. Now that's been taken way out of context. The article was actually a Playboy article titled
"The Wicked Wanda" and it had nothing to do with the Wanda beach murders. So there's no
direct evidence linking Percy to the crime, some believe he's guilty, some believe he isn't
but if he was involved, he took his secret to the grave. Detectives who visited him on his deathbed
several times, I think, trying to question him about not only Wanda but the other murders,
but he gave nothing away. Maybe advancements in DNA technology will be able to prove if Percy is
in fact the Wanda beach killer. In 2012, there was a major breakthrough in the investigation and that
was due to DNA technology. Police retested the clothing worn by Christine and Marianne and they
were in luck. They found a small spot of blood and that blood belongs to a male. Unfortunately,
the profile is too weak that they can't test any further but it's hoped that with further advances
in technology, that one day, and some say that could be within five years, that it is hoped a
full DNA profile will be obtained from that blood spot and the Wanda case will finally be solved.
As for the semen sample they found back at the time of the murders, the problem was it was 1965
and no one had heard of DNA testing. It wasn't heard of for many years after. Police wouldn't
have been able to imagine what was possible with today's technology and unfortunately this may have
led to less than ideal evidence handling, because at some point over the last 51 years, that semen
sample has been lost. It's unknown what the status of the broken piece of knife blade was that they
found back at the crime scene. They couldn't test it any further back then but with advances in DNA
technology, maybe they can today but like the semen sample, that may have been lost too. So
was Alan Bassett, Chris Wilder or Derek Percy responsible for the Wanda beach murders or is
someone else responsible? Maybe his name has already been given to police and it's buried
somewhere amongst those thousands upon thousands of pages upon pages of, that is the police file.
Maybe a vital piece of evidence or information was lost in the thousands of phone calls that police
received. Maybe it's someone completely unknown who's managed to avoid detection all these years,
maybe it was two people. Is there someone still out there who was up on the beach that day in the
sandhills who saw something, who's too scared to come forward? Even today police think that
there is. Certainly there's been a number of people described who were at the beach
that day who were never identified and who never came forward. It was a different time back then,
homosexuality was still illegal, it was actually considered to be a psychiatric disorder back then,
so society clearly held a very dim view of it. Just as a dim view would have been hold of the
nudists and, you know, some of the other unscrupulous characters that might have
been in the sandhills that day, but times have changed and we can only hope that if
someone did see or hear something that they are still alive and they may still yet come forward,
although there's probably a very dim hope at this point in time. Those people, what they saw heard,
they might even think that it was insignificant and wouldn't help in the investigation so there's
no use coming forward and risking exposure, but it could be the vital piece of missing information
that's needed to solve the case and bring closure to the families of Christine and Marianne. The
case is still as frightening today as it would have been back then and affected a great deal of
people, obviously the families, that goes without saying, but even the detectives, the police
that were close to the investigation, it really affected a lot of them. Now a lot of people close
to the case have passed on and they're no longer with us but the case still remains unsolved, and
let's just hope that it's solved one day. Whether it be a DNA breakthrough or some vital piece of
information that comes forward or something. Until then, may Marianne and Christine rest in peace.

Case 01: The Wanda Beach Murders

On the 11th of January 1965, two fifteen-year-old schoolgirls Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt were found murdered in the Wanda sand hills, just north of Cronulla Beach in Sydney's south.

The crime remains one of the most horrific Australia has ever seen. Despite an exhaustive police investigation, the killer remains unknown…

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anonymous Host Production, scoring – Mike Migas

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Brief Summary

The episode details the unsolved Wanda Beach murders of two teenage girls and the extensive investigation that followed.

Key points

The Wanda Beach Murders. The chilling case of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock, two friends murdered in 1965.
The Last Day. A detailed account of the girls' last day before their tragic fate.
Elisabeth Schmidt's Heartfelt Appeal. Elisabeth Schmidt speaks out about her daughter's murder, calling for justice and reflection on the killer's life.
The Hunt for the Surfy Teen. Police intensify their search for the surfy teen seen with the victims, urging him to come forward.
Frustration Mounts in Investigation. Police struggle with false leads and overwhelming tips, hindering the investigation into the murders.
Attack Near Caringbah Train Station. Two 15-year-old girls were attacked, raising community fears related to the Wanda case.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

What drew Marianne and Christine to the Wanda sandhills that day?

Questioning the circumstances of the girls' visit to the beach.

0:53WatchNov 19, 2018

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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