Australian police have launched a fresh hunt for a County Derry man suspected of brutally murdering his wife and three children almost 40 years ago.
By Connla Young
connla@derrypost.com
Elmer Kyle Crawford, who left Maghera in the 1950’s to start a new life in Australia, is the chief suspect in the savage murder of his pregnant wife Theresa, 35, children Katherine, 13, James, 8, and Karen, 6, in Melbourne in 1970.
Despite almost 40 years having passed, Victoria Police last month issued a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Crawford and issued a computer enhanced image of what the 78-year-old might look like today.
A year after the brutal murders an Australian coroner pointed the finger of suspicion at Crawford, who has not been seen since his wife and children’s bodies were recovered in a car dangling over a cliff edge hundreds of miles from their home.
Police believe Crawford used a home made electrocution device on his wife, eldest daughter Katherine and son James. The suspected killer also bludgeoned the two children with a hammer. His youngest child was spared electrocution but had her head smashed with a hammer.
After loading the bodies of his murdered family into his car, Crawford is believed to have driven to Loch Ard Gorge near Port Campbell, a remote region of Victoria where he tried to roll the car off a cliff. However his evil plot was uncovered when the car snagged on a cliff top ledge.
Crawford disappeared after the grim find and police believe he has been on the run in Western Australia ever since. There has been a number of reported sightings of him in the region in recent years.
Detective Sergeant Peter Harrington of the Victoria Police said: “To be slaughtered in the manner that they were by a member of the family, the father and husband, it’s just an unthinkable act.
“They deserve some answers and hopefully somebody out there can provide those answers.”
Greg Fogarty, who wrote a book, Almost Perfect, about the murders said: “And what I believe is, when he pushed the car off the cliff, he didn’t expect they would be found, maybe for say five, ten years.
“By which time, all the physical injuries would be gone, like the skin would be gone from the bodies and the only ones displaying physical injuries would be the three children, with the hammer wounds to their
head.”
[...] Murder Hunt [...]