Revealed: 10 Australian Unsolved Murders

4. Karmein Chan

Karmein Chan was a 13 year old girl from Victoria who was abducted on 13th April 1991 while her parents worked at their Chinese restaurant in Eltham. She was subsequently murdered. However, before departing, the abductor sprayed a cryptic message on a vehicle in their front yard urging her parents to pay ransom and that more would follow. Police suspect that this was a ruse meant to distract from the killer’s real intentions. Karmein’s mother made an emotional plea for her safe return thereafter but investigations may have been hampered by the use of an old photo that did not accurately depict how she looked like at the time of her disappearance.

Sadly, her badly decomposed body was found about a year later in the northern outskirts of Melbourne and despite much effort from the Victoria Police, no one has ever been brought to justice.

5. Mario Condello

Mario Condello was an Italian-Australian, a lawyer, and a money launderer for Melbourne’s infamous Calabrian mafia. He had a criminal record consisting of drug trafficking, fraud, and arson and was also suspected of being complicit in multiple murders. In 2005, he was charged with planning to murder Carl Williams (also a crime boss) who would be later convicted of conspiracy to kill Condello.

In February 2006, Condello was gunned down on his driveway a day before he was to be tried for conspiring to murder Williams. Police believe Rodney Collins (serving a 32 year sentence for a double murder in 1987 and convicted in 2010) paid a hit man to take out Condello. The murder remains unsolved.

6. Shirley Finn

Shirley was a brothel keeper in Perth who was brutally murdered on the 23rd of June 1975. Her body was found inside a parked car next to the South Perth Golf Course with many at the time attributing her death to specific issues relating to prostitution. However, no evidence to this end was discovered.

On the 30th anniversary of her death in 2005, a cold case review of her murder was announced- the opinion of some that no further leads could come to the fore notwithstanding.

7. Claremont Serial Killings

This case involves the unsolved murders of two young women and the unresolved disappearance of a third between 1996 and 1997 in Claremont- an affluent suburb in western Perth. All three disappeared in similar circumstances following nights out in Claremont leading police to suspect a serial killer- Mark Dixie- was the offender. However, Dixie was investigated at the time and eventually ruled out as a possible suspect. The case still remains open.

8. Betty Shanks

The murder of Betty Shanks remains one of the most notorious and oldest unsolved cases in Queensland. On the night of 19th September 1952, 22-year old Betty got off a tram at Grange Terminus in Brisbane, Queensland and began her short walk home. The next day, her violently beaten body was found in the garden of a house on the corner of Thomas and Carberry streets by a police officer who lived close by. At the time, it was Queensland’s biggest ever criminal investigation and one that still retains a reward of A$50,000 at present.

An attack by a sex offender was considered early on with another theory being that the murderer attacked the wrong woman and was actually interested in a doctor’s receptionist who also took the same walk home. The receptionist would have been in possession of keys to the surgery room which contained drugs. Several people have confessed over the years to the murder but all have proved to be false.

9. Lois Roberts

The daughter of an Aboriginal activist, Roberts, a trained hairdresser, was involved in a serious car accident aged 20 which left her with permanent brain damage. She was, however, sufficiently rehabilitated to care for herself and even went on to live on her own and had two children in the Lismore region.

Roberts was last seen near Nimbin Police Station on July 31st 1998 and it appears that she was abducted whilst hiking between Nimbin and Lismore before being tortured, abused, and subsequently killed. Her badly mutilated body was found in early 1999 by a bushwalker and the perpetrator(s) of this heinous crime has never been identified.

10. Jane Thurgood-Dove

Jane Thurgood-Dove was confronted by an assailant in the driveway of her Melbourne home and repeatedly shot in her head and body as her 3 young children (aged 3, 5, and 10) cowered inside the car. This murder shocked and outraged the Victorian public in equal measure and despite the government posting a $100,000 reward for any information that would lead to a conviction, to date, no one has been charged in relation to this murder.

Can you help solve these mysteries?

Call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000