The Truro Murders (Part 4): The Victims: Vicki and Connie

The Truro Murders (Part 4): The Victims: Vicki and Connie

The Truro Murderers had now claimed the lives of four young women. They were unrelenting in their bloodlust and began to take more risks in finding new victims.

Vicki Howell – Aged 26

Only a day after the death of Sylvia, on February 7th, 1977 the driver was told to meet his friend at the Adelaide Post Office at 7pm. There, with his friend was Vicki Howell, a 26-year-old woman who was in a bit of an emotional slump, having recently separated from her husband.

The good looking young man had convinced her to go for a long drive out to the Barossa Valley. They stopped at Nuriootpa for Vicki to use a bathroom. A little further out from Nuriootpa, they stopped so the driver could go into the bushes and relieve himself.

When he returned, only half an hour later, Vicki was dead and his friend was covering her body in the backseat.

The two men argued extensively about this murder as the driver felt she was a nice girl and didn’t deserve his death. The argument ended, with the driver sure his friend would kill him.
The two men continued only a few minutes further on up the road to Truro, and disposed of the body in their usual manner, before returning to Adelaide.

Connie Iordinides – Aged 16

 The killing spree was now picking up pace. On February 9th, only two days after the death of Vicki Howell, the two men were driving around Adelaide when they noticed a young girl standing on the footpath, laughing and giggling to herself.
They turned the car around and drove up to her, asking if she needed a lift anywhere.
The young girl jumped in the car and sat in the front seat between the two men. Instead of heading where they had promised her, they turned in the opposite direction toward Wingfield.
The driver stopped in his favourite secluded area, got out of the car and went for a walk. He could hear young Connie screaming as she was pulled into the backseat and raped, then strangled.
When he returned, Connie was dead and covered with a blanket in the backseat.
The two men drove to Truro and disposed of her remains in the same manner as the previous girls. They then drove back to Adelaide, sleeping in their car at the Victoria Park Racecourse.


Next Week: The Truro Murders (Part 5): The Victims: Deborah L and Deborah S

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2015

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The Truro Murders (Part 2): The Victims: Veronica and Tania

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:

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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

1977, January 2nd. A driver dropped off a good looking young man at one end of Rundle Mall, agreeing to pick him up at the other end. The driver waited, and soon the good looking young man appeared with a 15-year-old girl named Tania Kenny.

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

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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