Pearce Family Murder’s: Part I: The Hunt for Stuart Pearce.

Pearce Family Murder’s: Part I: The Hunt for Stuart Pearce.

Saturday the 5th of January 1990 was the last time Meredith Pearce talked to her sister on the phone, the next morning she would be dead.

On Sunday morning the 6th of January 1991, the Metropolitan fire service was called to a home on Jackson Street, Parafield Gardens. The home was well ablaze, and after being extinguished, inside was found the body of Meredith Pearce (31) and three of her four children, Adam (11), Travis (9) and Kerry (2), missing from the house fire were Meredith’s husband, Stuart, and another son, Matthew (8).
Matthew, it was later found, had spent the night before sleeping over at a friend’s house. Stuart Pearce, however, could not, and still to this day, be found and remains the prime suspect in the murder of the family.

The Pearce family - circa 1990

Since the murders took place, numerous sightings of Stuart Pearce were reported across the world. Police investigated each one, with all being false identifications, and the suspects involved being able to prove who they really are.
A man fitting Pearce’s description, wearing a beige coloured uniform with the BP logo on it was seen in a Port Augusta shop on the day of the murders being reported.
Other unconfirmed sightings took place at Ceduna and at Madura in Western Australia.
A month after the murders, another unconfirmed sighting of Pearce took place at Portland, Victoria.
In late 1991, Pearce was sighted in Mount Gambier. Police thought he may have been sheltered by friends in the area, but Pearce alluded police capture.

Pearce was reportedly sighted in June 1996, at a Knox shopping centre in Melbourne, but this sighting remains inconclusive with no images of the person offered to police.

Detective Sergeant Sharpe said of the hunt for Stuart Pearce in a 2016 interview: “It would be very difficult for someone to live off the grid for this length of time – we have his fingerprints plus a DNA profile and he’s the subject of an Interpol red notice, but he hasn’t come to our attention.

Pearce is 177cm’s tall and has blue eyes. At the time of the murders, he had two distinctive tattoos. One tattoo was a Maltese Cross with a red and green rose over it on his lower left leg, and on his upper right arm, he had a tattoo of a naked woman with a rose on her back.


Stuart Pearce remains the prime suspect in the murders.

The Pearce family home at Parafield Gardens 

A reward of up to $1 million dollars has been offered for information leading to the apprehension and/or conviction of the person, or people, responsible for the suspected murders.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or report online at https://crimestopperssa.com.au/ - Callers can remain anonymous.


Next Week: Pearce Family Murder’s: Part II: The Murders


Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2018.
(References published in the final post.)

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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 3): The Victims: Juliet and Sylvia

The Truro Murders (Part 3): The Victims: Juliet and Sylvia

With two victims, the men to become known as “The Truro Murderers” did not relent in their killing spree. The two men had their chosen “pick-up” points, including Rundle Mall, The Buckingham Arms Hotel and the Adelaide Railway Station.

Juliet Mykyta – Aged 16

In 1977, 16 year Juliet Mykyta, a Marsden High School student, worked in the city at a small sidewalk booth selling jewellery. It was the school holidays, and she planned on being home late. She stopped at a telecom phone booth to phone her parents and tell them not to worry if she was later than usual.

She waited for the bus that was scheduled to arrive outside the Ambassador’s Hotel at 9pm on King William Street. A good looking young man and his friend pulled over and offered her a lift, which she gratefully took.

The men drove out to Port Wakefield Road and parked. The good looking young man forced Juliet into the backseat, where he tied her up as she screamed and kicked at him. The driver went for a walk, looking back at the car, he saw Juliet and heard her shouting, and watched her fall to the ground as if kicked in the stomach. The good looking guy was suddenly on top of her and strangled her with a length of rope.

An argument broke out between the two men, with the driver leaving for a while. When he returned the young girl was not visible, most likely she was in the boot of the car.

The two men drove in relative silence to Truro. Instead of going towards Swamp Road where they had buried the previous bodies, they detoured out on another road to an old farmhouse and disposed of Juliet’s body there. They dumped her on the ground and covered her in branches and leaves. They then returned home.

Sylvia Pitmann – Aged 16

On February 6th 1977, 16-year-old Sylvia Pitmann was waiting for a train at the Adelaide Railway Station. A good looking young man approached her and convinced her he could give her a lift home, thus saving her from having to wait for the train.

The two men drove the young girl out to a secluded spot near Wingfield. The driver took a walk. Upon returning, the driver noticed the young girl in the backseat covered with a rug. She had been strangled to death with a pair of her own pantyhose.
The two men drove out to Truro and unloaded Sylvia's body – fully clothed, and not tied up like the other girls. They laid her on the ground and covered her with sticks and branches, then made their way back to Adelaide.





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

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2015

Follow on us Facebook:
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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