True Crime: The Brutal Murder Of 12-Year-Old Monica Schofield

Eventually, Walton was able to crack Foster under the pressure of a life in prison. He said that he had been on the tip on Monday morning when a very shiny blue Austin A40 sedan had pulled up. A man in his 20s had exited the car, leaving the passenger door open. Floyd had seen an opportunity for theft, so he had approached the car.

It was then that he had seen a girl lying on the ground.

The driver was on top of her, but she didn’t scream of make a noise. Floyd stole an airline bag from inside the car and left, returning later and finding Monica’s school case. According to Floyd, the same car and the same man returned at around 4pm, looked around (presumably for the case) and then left.

Police started search for evidence to corroborate Floyd’s story, and eventually found all of the items that he had taken from the scene. They decided he wasn’t a viable suspect and stopped investigating him, putting out information in the Sunday Telegraph saying they were now seeking a young man in a blue Austin A40. There were calls, but none were of value.

Finding Monica

On Tuesday, June the 25th, just over a week after Monica’s disappearance, the police and volunteers were still out looking for her along Heathcote Road. Around 3pm, they crossed a creek at Sandy Point: Deadmans Creek. It was here that volunteer George Currie decided to take a break and have a smoke. While he smoked, he noted a piece of sandstone that appeared to have been taken from underground. He moved it, along with some other junk, and found a patch of freshly dug dirt with Monica Schofield’s arm just below the surface.

They had found her.

A Government Medical Officer and a forensic detective excavated Monica from the shallow grave in which she had been placed by her killer. The rain fell as she was placed in a body bag to be taken to the city morgue. Cox and Walton watched the entire thing, and then followed the procession to its destination, ensuring it was done right. They wanted there to be nothing holding back the case from a successful resolution. An autopsy confirmed that Monica had been raped and then strangled. Cox had this to say:

“What a dreadful sight. The poor little girl was still partly dressed in her school uniform. Her skirt was up around her hips and her panties had been removed,” he wrote in his book on the case.

“She had obviously been raped. I couldn’t help but think of my little 12-year-old daughter Cathy.”

“That vision has haunted me to this present day.”

Monica’s father identified his daughter’s body. The family was destroyed.

The Killer

It was just two days later that the case was unexpectedly broken. A policeman on highway patrol spotted a man driving a blue Austin A40 that matched the description police had released. According to the man, he had only just purchased the car from a young man named Barry Rodrick. It was a name police already knew. 24-year-old Rodrick had previously been a potential suspect in the eerily similar abduction and rape of a 15-year-old girl in January of 1960.

Unlike Monica, this girl had managed to escape, but Rodrick was never properly identified or charged.

Police went looking for him at his home the very next day, but they were told he had already skipped town. His wife described to them a man with a “very aggressive sexual appetite” who had often forced her into sex. He was on the run.

Luckily, Rodrick’s escape wasn’t destined to be successful. He was found in Grafton almost immediately after his description was circulated to NSW Police. An officer spotted Rodrick, asked him to identify himself (which he did) and then arrested him. The officer described Rodrick as an enormous man, around six-foot-three and 200 pounds in weight. To the police officer who arrested him he said:

“I knew you’d be looking for me over that blue car, but I didn’t kill her.”

After being flown to Sydney, Detective Bob Walton took him in to be interviewed, working his particular brand of psychological pressure with Peter Cox watching on. He quickly cracked, admitting that he had raped Monica. Afterwards he claimed Monica had said: “You’d better let me go now, my mother will be worried”.

Concerned that the girl’s confession would lead to his arrest, he decided to kill her. He strangled her with a rope.

Justice

Even though he had confessed to the crime, Rodrick decided to plead not guilty when he went to trial in November of 1963. The jury took just three hours to find him guilty, and Justice Dovey sentenced him to life in prison. The judge noted that Rodrick had “not shown the slightest remorse” for his acts, and that his sentence was well deserved.

Rodrick did attract beatings in prison, despite his size, and plotted to escape in 1965. The plan was not successful. Then in 1970, on the 7th anniversary of Monica’s murder, Rodrick attempted to overpower a guard with a home-made pistol and escape again. He failed and when he was placed back in his cell a single shot was heard. Rodrick had killed himself with another jail-made gun on the same day he had taken Monica’s life. His death was not mourned.

The Aftermath

Sadly, the Schofield family could not continue with their life in Australia after the tragic murder of their daughter Monica. After Rodrick was arrested, they thanked police for helping to bring their daughter to justice, but they did not stay for the trial. Instead, they returned to the United Kingdom, where they had originated from, with Monica’s remains.

They planned to bury her in their hometown, and seek a different life away from the harsh country that had claimed their daughter.

source: News.com.au