Tracy Muzyk Murder

A horrific case of mob mentality led to the brutal torture murder of an 18-year-old girl in Adelaide. The strength of the attack, not only vicious and merciless, shocked South Australia’s public, even more so when it was revealed that some of the attackers, were younger than their victim.
 It was December 1996 when a gang of six held down Tracy Muzyk and viciously attacked and killed her.

 Her attackers were:
Matthew Austin – aged 22,
Ian McKenzie – aged 19,
Tara Kehoe – aged 19,
Lyle Bascombe – aged 17,
Amanda Pemberton – aged 17,
and another 17-year-old teenager, whose identity was suppressed.

 The group of killers claimed that Ms Muzyk owed $70 to Amanda Pemberton, a teenager Ms Muzyk had recently befriended. They began to beat and humiliate Ms Muzyk. they held her down and put out cigarettes on her skin. They strangled her to near death, then beat her again, then sprayed her face with mace.
 Ms Muzyk was then forced to shower in scalding water before having her hair cut off as an act of humiliation.

 She was forced to walk to a tree in a paddock, where she was tied to the tree and beaten severely again, before being strangled, then beaten with a large steel pole and bashed with a rock.
 Ms Muzyk’s badly beaten body would sit in the paddock near Westlakes High School, tied to the tree and covered with lawn clippings for another 4 days before being found by passers-by.
 
 Detectives working on the case didn’t take long to piece together what had happened and track down the aforementioned killers.
 They were rounded up and put to trial with all found guilty. The sentences given by Justice Kevin Duggan of the Adelaide Supreme Court were as follows:

Matthew Craig Austin – sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 22 years.
Ian Bruce McKenzie – sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 22 years.
Tara Maree Kehoe – sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 18 years.
Amanda Pemberton – sentenced to life.
Lyle Brankik Bascombe – sentenced to life.

Another offender was given a 15 month suspended sentence for her part in the attack.
In 2000, an appeal led to Tara Kehoe's non-parole period being reduced to 15 and a 1/2 years and Pemberton's minimum term to 14 years, causing outrage to the public and from the family of Ms Muzyk.

References: 

The Age, Melbourne Victoria, Friday, May 29^th, 1998

Editors note: In October 2016, 42-year-old, Ms Tara Kehoe was found dead in Adelaide's South.