THE CHILLING CASE OF THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS
In 1999, Snowtown in South Australia became labeled as the location of where the remains of eight bodies were found. All the remains were found inside barrels of acid, located inside an abandoned bank vault. Even though most of the bodies were all found in Snowtown, only one murder happened there. All other victims were killed around the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide, and none of the four perpetrators were locals from Snowtown either. There were twelve victims in total.
The motives for the murders remain unclear, but it seems as though the group’s ringleader, John Justin Bunting, made them believe that the victims they were targeting were either pedophiles, homosexuals, or anyone who appeared to seem “weak.” He also chose his victims due to things he hated, such as drug users, or people who were obese. Some victims were killed quickly, while others were tortured and degraded. The killers also made an effort to take the victims’ identities to have access to their bank accounts and social security payments. The murders took place between August of 1992, up until they were apprehended in May of 1999.
THE PERPETRATORS
John Justin Bunting: (born September 4th, 1966). The ring leader. When he was eight, he was beaten and sexually assaulted by a friend’s older brother. This led to his hatred towards homosexuals and why he felt to take matters into his own hands regarding anyone who he suspected as being a pedophile. He also enjoyed weaponry, photography and anatomy. At age 22, Bunting worked at an abattoir, and reportedly bragged about slaughtering the animals, and how much he enjoyed it. In 1991, Bunting then moved to a house in Salisbury North, South Australia, and befriended his neighbors, Mark Haydon and Robert Wagner.
A forensic psychiatrist, Professor Kevin Howellsat, believed that his behavior suggested he lacked emotion and the capacity to empathize with his victims. It showed that he was a psychopath who felt great satisfaction from controlling his victims. His victims were forced to call him ‘God’, ‘Master’, ‘Chief Inspector’ and ‘Lord Sir’. During the murders, he had fashioned a “rock spider wall” on a wall of a spare room in his house. He created a chart by using paper notes and wool, and on that chart was an interconnected web of names of people that he suspected to be homosexuals or pedophiles. He would select a name from the wall then call and threaten the person, insinuating they were pedophiles, and claimed that they “would get what’s coming to them”.
Bunting was convicted of committing 11 murders, and was sentenced to 11 life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Robert Joe Wagner: (born November 28th, 1971). There’s not a lot to report on Wagner, besides the fact that he was befriended by Bunting in 1991, and was convinced to assist in the murders. He only confessed to killing three people, but was convicted of killing 10, and was sentenced to 10 life sentences without the possibility of parole.
James “Jamie” Spyridon Vlassakis: (born December 24th, 1979). James, along with his mother and half-brother, Troy Youde, lived with Bunting, and overtime was convinced to assist in the murders. Yes, Vlassakis helped torture and murder his own half-brother, along with his stepbrother, David Johnson. He confessed to four murders, including the murder of his half-brother and stepbrother, and became a key witness for the Crown (public prosecutors to the legal system of Australia). Evidence, along with the details he provided, helped convict Bunting and Wagner. He was sentenced to a minimum of 26, and was held in isolation in an unidentified South Australia prison. Vlassakkis mother, Elizabeth Harvey, also knew about the murders, and with encouragement from Bunting, she even assisted in one of them. However, once everyone was taken into custody, she passed away from cancer.
Mark Ray Haydon: (born December 4th, 1958). Haydon was an associate of Bunting, and was initially the subject of “suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication” and thus could not be identified as anything other than an alleged perpetrator. In January of 1999, he reportedly rented the abandoned state bank building in Snowtown. The jury deadlocked on the murders of Haydon’s wife, Elizabeth Haydon, along with Troy Youde. The murder charges were not retried when Haydon pleaded guilty to helping the serial killers dispose of the bodies of Elizabeth and Youde.
Haydon only confessed to assisting with disposing of two bodies, but was convicted of five, and was sentenced to 25 years with a minimum of 18 years before being eligible for parole.
THE VICTIMS
Clinton Douglas Trezise (20): His body was found buried in a shallow grave at Lower Light, north of Adelaide, in 1994. He was bashed in the head with a hammer by Bunting, after being invited inside for a social event. Once inside, he accused him of being a pedophile.
Ray Allan Peter Davies (26): He was an intellectually disabled man, who in 1993 had an intimate relationship with Bunting’s ex-girlfriend, Suzanne Allen. Suzanne’s grandsons alleged that Davies had made sexual advances towards them, which ended his relationship with Suzanne. Bunting later admitted to Vlassakis that he had killed Davies on December 25th, 1995. He explained how Vlassakis’s own mother and Bunting’s wife, Elizabeth Harvey, had stabbed Davies in the leg, right before Wagner strangled him to unconsciousness with a jumper cable. In court testimony, Vlassakis stated that, according to Bunting’s story, Bunting and Wagner loaded Davies’ unconscious body into the trunk of a car, and had driven 90 minutes to a home in the town of Bakara. Then they threw his body into a bathtub, and proceeded to bash him in the genitals with the end of a pole which resulted in his death. On May 26, 1999, the body of Davies was found in a grave filled in by Bunting and Wagner with bricks, soil and concrete on property previously occupied by Bunting in Salisbury.
Suzanne Allen (47): Was found buried at Bunting’s house, and wrapped in eleven different plastic bags. Her death was concealed by Bunting and he continued to collect her pension, claiming a total of $17,000. Bunting claimed she had died of a heart attack although law enforcement suspect that she was murdered when her relationship with Bunting deteriorated. Murder charges regarding the death of Allen were eventually dropped by the prosecution due to lack of evidence and the perpetrators were tried but not found guilty as a result of a hung jury. Her case was never tried again.
Michelle Gardiner (19): She was a transexual, who was also the cousin of Wagner’s wife. She was very open about who she was, and Bunting hated this behavior and labeled her as “the biggest homo.” Right before her disappearance in 1977, she was outside playing with Wagner’s children in their front yard, where he witnessed her grabbing one of his children and placing her hand over their mouth. Seeing this, Wagner became filled with rage, and he and Bunting took her to the Murray Bridge, where they strangled her to death, inside of a shed. There they forced her to stand up every time she collapsed. After her death, they staged her home to make it look like she was robbed. They kept her body in a barrel inside the shed, until they moved it to the Snowtown bank vault. Her right ear was covered by a slipknot in a rope that was wrapped around her neck, and her left foot was cut off in order to be able to close the barrel.
Vanessa Lane (42): She was Wagner’s ex-partner, and was a “pre-op” transgender woman who was in a relationship with Wagner during the time Bunting moved in nextdoor. Bunting was okay with being her friend, simply because she kept him updated about the pedophiles around the area. However, when she was accused of sexually assaulting a local boy, he became enraged. The couple then broke up. She was tortured to death for information regarding her bank accounts, and then was strangled to death after having her toes crushed by a pair of pliers. Bunting took control of her vehicle and collected her welfare payments. Her body was found dismembered and put into a barrel in the Snowtown bank vault.
Thomas Eugenio Trevilyan (18): Vanessa Lane’s last partner who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and hallucinations, which led him to believe that he was a soldier, so he always wore army clothes. From April to October 1997, Trevilyan lived with Vanessa for five months, and helped Bunting and Wagner kill her. On November 4th, 1997, Wagner’s girlfriend’s son was playing with a dog when Trevilyan began chasing it in an attempt to kill the animal with his knife. He was stopped but that afternoon Bunting told others that Trevilyan had started to “go mental” and that he would be a liability to them. On November 5th, Trevilyan was then driven to Kersbrook in the Adelaide Hills, by Bunting and Wagner. He was forced to lean against a box and had a noose put over his neck. He was discovered hanging from a tree in Humbug Scrub the next day. Due to his history of prior suicide attempts, the coroner determined that he had killed himself
Gavin Allan Porter (29): Was a diagnosed schizophrenic who spent many years in mental institutions, and who was also Vlassakis friend. Both Porter and Vlassaki were heroin addicts, and Bunting referred to Porter as “a waste,” and after accidentally being pricked by a syringe that was left on the couch, he decided Porter would be their next victim. Porter was sleeping in his parked car on Bunting’s property when Bunting and Wagner attacked him. When Porter woke up, he managed to stab Bunting in the hand with a screwdriver before being overpowered and strangled. Porter’s body was displayed to Vlassakis before disposing of it into a barrel.
Troy Youde (21): He was the half-brother of Vlassakis. Vlassakis had earlier confided in Bunting that Youde exually abused him when he was 13. Bunting and Wagner woke up Vlassakis while he was sleeping in his bed and told him they were going to murder Youde. They beat Youde while he was asleep in bed and then Vlassakis handcuffed him while the others tied him up. They then dragged him out of bed and forced him into the bathroom, where they beat him once more and demanded his financial information. Bunting used pliers to crush Youde’s toes as he coaxed him to repeat a string of numbers, words, and sentences that he had recorded. He was then strangled to death. Bunting created messages from Youde and afterwards from subsequent victims to inform friends that they would be going away using the recordings.
Frederick “Fred” Robert Brooks (18): Was the son of Jodie Elliott who was the sister of Haydon’s wife. Bunting became obsessed with the idea that Brooks was “touching up” young girls and repeatedly told others that something had to “happen” to him. In September 1998, Brooks was notified that he had been accepted into the Australian Air Force Cadets, and was invited to join Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis at a party. The three of them tortured him in a bathtub and was handcuffed and thumb cuffed. They inserted lit cigarettes into his ears and his nostrils, and a lit sparkler was shoved up into his urethra. He was then forced to speak into a recording device, giving up his banking information. A syringe was used to inject bleach into his testicles, which were wired to a Variac, sending electrical surges through his body. His toes were also crushed by pliers before he choked to death on his gag.
Gary O’Dwyer (29): He was Buntings neighbor and was both physically and mentally disabled, and was repeatedly called a “fag” by Bunting. Vlassaki informed Bunting of O’Dwyers financial situation and whether he had family or not. He was informed of O’dwyers disability benefits, which made him a financial target. The two, along with Wagner, invited him over for a social gathering to have drinks. They got O’Dwyer drunk, and Wagner grabbed him around his throat and proceeded to torture him for several hours. His remains, like many others, were placed inside of a barrel.
Elizabeth Haydon (37): She was Mark Haydon’s wife and Frederick Brooks’s aunt. Bunting was informed by Haydon that he had informed his wife about the murders. Bunting detested Elizabeth and warned Vlassakis that she was an issue due to being aware of the murders. Wagner had similar feelings about Elizabeth, considering Haydon’s wife to be “a whore” and “a low-life.” On November 21, 1998, Bunting and Wagner arrived at her home, and her husband and children had gone out for the night. She was dragged to her bathroom, tortured, and then killed. A rope was left around her neck, and a gag had been taped into her mouth. Allegedly, later that day, when her husband was shown her remains, he laughed. Elizabeth’s body was then placed in a barrel.
David Johnson (24): He was Vlassakis stepbrother. . Bunting didn’t like Johnson because he was fastidious with his cleanliness and appearance and Bunting consistently referred to him as a “yuppie,” and a “faggot”. Bunting began talking about “getting” Johnson and suggested that Vlassakis find a way to get him to the bank vault in Snowtown. On May 9, 1999, Vlassakis told Johnson that there was a computer for sale in Snowtown, and he agreed to go with him to buy it. He was overpowered as soon as he entered the building. Johnson was the only victim who died in Snowtown. Additionally, a piece of flesh from Johnson was fried and eaten by Bunting and Wagner.
