The Truro Murders (Part 2): The Victims: Veronica and Tania
The Truro Murders broke as a national story and put the tiny town on the map as a notorious serial killing hotspot. Much like the Snowtown “Bodies in the barrels” case many years later, the murders themselves didn’t happen in Truro, and not all the girl's remains were found there.
Veronica Knight – Aged 18:
On Thursday the 23rd of December 1976, two men were driving the streets of Adelaide watching the hordes of last-minute Christmas shoppers rush about to buy their loved one's presents.
\There were many young women about. One of the men left the car and told his friend to drive around the block, and he would meet him back here. The driver drove around the block twice, and on the second loop, found his friend with a young girl at the front of the Majestic Hotel.
The young girl had become separated from her friend, and while standing in the City-Cross Arcade, was approached by a good looking young man who offered her a lift home to Angas Street where she was staying at the Salvation Army Hostel.
Now in the car with two men she didn’t know, she was convinced to go for a drive into the Adelaide Hills.
The driver of the car pulled into a side-track and excused himself, taking a walk in the darkness. The other, “friendly” guy, pulled Veronica into the backseat and had his way.
When the driver returned half an hour later, the young girl was lying motionless on the backseat.
The men then drove through Gawler, to Truro. They drove down Swamp Road, pulled over, and removed the body from the car, burying it in loose sand and covering her body in branches and leaves in the swamp.
Tania Kenny – Aged 15
Tania had recently run away from home and hitchhiked her way to Adelaide from Victor Harbour, two hours south.
The two men and Tania drove to the sister's house of one of the men, on the pretext of picking up clothes. No-one was home, but the good looking young man and Tania entered the house anyway.
It wasn’t long before the good looking man returned. The driver knew something was wrong and went into the house. There he found, in the children’s playroom, Tania. She had been bound with rope, had been gagged and strangled. The two men argued and threats were made. They hid the girl’s body in a closet.
The two men returned that night and put the body in the car, and drove towards Wingfield to the Dean Rifle Range. Here they buried the girl in a shallow grave that they had dug earlier in the day.
Next Week: The Truro Murders (Part 3): The Victims: Juliet and Sylvia
Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2015
Follow on us Facebook:
www.facebook.com/TheHauntsofAdelaide
Or buy the book by Haunting: Australia’s Allen Tiller – The Haunts of Adelaide: History, Mystery and the Paranormal – available in traditional book format or on Amazon Kindle at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Haunts-Adelaide-Allen-Tiller/dp/0994177895
No comments:
Post a Comment