The Family Murders. Greg McInerny
effect on Alan.
While Mr John Barnes attended the city morgue to perform the heartbreaking duty of identifying his son, Mrs Barnes waited at home. She knew that the lad found under the bridge was Alan, she had told the police to look on the underside of his watch where she and John had arranged to have a birthday message engraved.
Mrs Barnes had spent the last week sleeping on the sofa in the lounge room in case the phone rang or Alan came home. Alan would have to walk through the lounge room if he entered the house and his mother wanted to be there when he did, but that day would never come.
On Tuesday the 26th June 1979 a 23 year old man walked into SA Police headquarters and spoke with a detective regarding Alan’s murder. He had seen the newspaper article about the murder and had recognized the victim. He told Detective Kappe that he believed his friend Bevan Spencer von Einem should be looked at in regard to the murder of 17 year old Alan ‘Spook’ Barnes.
The man who years later would be known as Mr B also gave details about a yellow mustard Valiant car used by von Einem to pick up and drug boys for sex, and that the boys were then used in sex films at von Einem’s ‘house’. Mr B noted however that the detective smirked at times during the interview, especially when he mentioned the filming. Feeling both uneasy and disbelieved, he left before really telling all that he knew.
Police had their first real lead, but chose to dismiss it. They believed that revenge had been the motive for Alan’s murder and began their search for ‘Bruce’, the boyfriend of the alleged rape victim – the singer from the hotel.
Mr B later claimed he had spoken to Bevan von Einem on the day that Alan’s body was found, and that von Einem had threatened to implicate him in the murder if he spoke to police.
Mr B had witnessed far more than he had let on, but the alleged warning from von Einem and dismissal by police put him off. Regardless, police had a name, an area, a car, a modus operandi and therefore their first lead.
Police had initially thought it suspicious that ‘Bruce’, the boyfriend of the alleged rape victim, had gone interstate. However, it had been five months since the alleged rape occurred and this should have suggested to police that it would be an extremely delayed reaction if Alan’s murder was in fact a ‘revenge’ killing.
Another theory was that Bruce had taken off due to the breakdown of the relationship with the young lady involved. It was suggested during legal argument and evidence in 1990 that on the night that Alan was confronted at the Inglewood Inn, he may have convinced Bruce that the assault did not take place as claimed.
This theory was later backed up by Bowsey who claimed to have witnessed a teary admission of Alan’s innocence to Mrs Barnes by the alleged rape victim.
Alan had been drugged, bashed and murdered in what would have been a violent and bloody scene. Yet when Alan’s body was located police discovered that he had been washed, redressed and dumped with not a single piece of usable evidence on or around his body. This was hardly the work of a jealous young boyfriend.
At this stage there was just the one credible and detailed lead but the police had dismissed it. Mr B had given the police details of a possible killer but for one reason or other the police failed to interview Bevan Spencer von Einem until Sunday the 2nd September 1979. By this time 68 days had passed and with it, any reasonable chance of solving the case.
Mr B had referred to a house that von Einem had taken the drugged boys to for sex. Mr B stated he had only ever been there at night after invariably consuming alcohol and drugs, but was still able to give enough information for police to check into. It was in fact a flat rather than a house, but the specific details of Mr B’s allegations were the important facts. Tragically this seemed to be lost on investigators at the time and it would be 4 years before they would contact him again.
Bevan von Einem was eventually interviewed by Detectives Hunter and Anderson at his unit located just off Lower North East Rd in Campbelltown, just a stone’s throw from the area’s busy main shopping center. He lived at the 2 bedroom unit with his 70 year old mother after spending 5 years ‘real estate roaming’ after the death of his father in 1972. This was the fourth home that Thora (his mother) and Bevan von Einem had purchased in that time.
The detectives talked to him at the front door, in his bedroom and in the carport which was located at the side of the end unit. Von Einem denied any involvement in the murder of Alan Barnes and also denied owning or having access to a cream Valiant station wagon. He also denied drugging and taking boys to a ‘house’ in Campbelltown, the police not realizing that they were actually questioning him at the said ‘house’ that Mr B referred to.
Strangely, despite police making their line of questioning very clear, von Einem took the opportunity to offer an explanation about his involvement with a completely different murder victim. The police had in their grasp someone who had been implicated as a suspect in the murder of Alan Barnes, who was now telling them how he was in the company of another murder victim, Neil Muir, less than two days before he was murdered. Von Einem then went on to tell detectives that he thought that they had contacted him for that reason.
He said that he had been in the company of Neil and friend Sarah at different hotels in or near the city on the night of the 25th August and possibly in the early hours of the 26th . Whether this was a ploy to throw police off their mark or an attempt to justify having any evidence on him or in his car, or both, is unknown.
Neil Muir had been murdered on the night of Monday August 27th 1979. He had died from an almost identical anal injury to that which had ended the life of Alan ‘Spook’ Barnes. The obvious difference between the murders was that Neil’s body had been dismembered after death.
Neil’s remains were thrown into the Port River water which was pertinent given that Alan’s body was also thrown into what was thought to be a body of water. However it was and still is believed that the killers had missed their mark and had unknowingly thrown Alan’s body onto the damp soil. No doubt they would have realised their mistake in the darkness by the sound made when Alan’s lifeless body hit the ground.
Regardless, it appeared that the detectives thought nothing of the fact that a person who was implicated in one murder had placed himself in the company of another murder victim less than two days before he had died from the same unique and brutal injury.
It had taken 68 days for detectives to interview von Einem regarding Alan Barnes yet the very next day on the 3rd September, Detective Leigh Haddon would interview his number one suspect in the murder of Neil Muir just 5 days after receiving information in a similar fashion.
Years later under questioning from Marie Shaw QC, Detective Hunter would admit that, to his knowledge, there had been no follow up inquiries conducted at all regarding the interview with von Einem or the information supplied by Mr B. Not so much as a vehicle ownership check was done according to Hunter. He did however pass on the information regarding Neil Muir to Detective Leigh Haddon who was headed that later investigation.
In regards to Alan Barnes, it appeared that the police did little more than casually question von Einem at his home. They simply took von Einem’s word for everything. They failed to do a vehicle registration check or check at his place of employment to see if anybody had seen him with a Valiant car, or if anyone owned one and had loaned it to him.
History shows that if the police had taken Mr B’s information more seriously, instead of so readily dismissing him, they may have uncovered von Einem’s deviant activities in the beginning.
Had police interviewed von Einem earlier, or even followed the leads and initiate a line of inquiry, they would have discovered a myriad of information that would further implicate him including witnesses recalling a Valiant Wagon, and that von Einem also had access to his employer’s company car which was a Holden Kingswood Sedan.
Sadly, it took another murder to occur before police began to realize how relevant and