The Frankston Serial Killer

by Vikki Petraitis

  Mark Woolfe wasn't satisfied. He knew something about engines. He also knew that fans were designed to flick away anything that came into contact with them to avoid people injuring themselves. They persisted with the questioning, mentioning all the cuts that covered his hands one by one.

  Denyer became evasive, saying that he didn't remember when he did all of them. He said that he cut himself so frequently, he hardly noticed how he did it. The detectives persisted.

  Wilson pointed to the deep cut in Denyer's thumb which looked recent. 'Do you know how that occurred?'

  'No, I don't recall how that happened.'

  Wilson asked him to put his thumb up toward the camera to record the deep cut on video. 'You can see it's deeper at the top and then it's got thinner at the bottom. It's not as open, is it? Do you see what I mean?'

  Studying the cut on his thumb, Denyer agreed.

  'How did you do that?' Wilson asked.

  'I think I was sharpening a knife at home,' Denyer explained, saying that he had cut himself a number of times while sharpening a knife to cut Sharon some apple pie to take to work. He told the detectives that he had sharpened the knife by pushing it in and out of the stay-sharp scabbard and showed them the movements with his hands.

  Both detectives could see that there was no way that Denyer could have cut himself in the thumb if he was sharpening the knife the way he illustrated. Denyer too could see that his explanation was not working and tried twisting his thumb around to show how the cut could have been made. Finally, he shrugged and said, 'Well, that's the only explanation I have for it.'

  'That's opened up quite appreciably. You would have had to have bled.'

  'I don't bleed very much. I don't bleed hard. Like, I cut myself and it won't bleed.'

  'But Paul, that would bleed.'

  'Oh well, it would have bled.'

  'You'd have to remember that bleeding.'

  'It would've bled but not too, you know, quick.' Denyer claimed he had dabbed the cut with toilet paper and blown on it and the blood flow had stopped.

  'That cut?' asked Wilson.

  'Yeah, yeah.'

  'Are you telling the truth?'

  Denyer began to lose his cool. He could see that his explanation wasn't holding water and Wilson wasn't letting up.

  'And you're trying to tell me that when you first mentioned it, you did it with your right hand because you're right-handed. Then when I challenged you on it, you turned around and said it was your left hand. You couldn't have cut your thumb that way because the sharp edge is underneath.'

  Denyer tried to explain again, but Wilson interrupted him saying that it was impossible to get such a straight cut in his thumb in the way he was describing. Denyer shrugged and said that it was the way he remembered it. Wilson moved on to discuss the other cuts that covered his hands.

  'Did Sharon ask you how you got the cuts?'

  'Yeah, she asked me.'

  'What did you tell her?'

  'I told her, you know, it happened when I was working on the car.'

  Wilson indicated the large cut. 'What did you tell her about this one?'

  'Well, she… the only one she really saw was this one. She asked me about that cause my hand was on the steering wheel today. She went, "Oh, what was that?" And I said, "Oh, did it while I was working on the car."'

  'So you're sure she never asked you about these cuts?'

  'No, no. She didn't ask me at all.'

  Wilson changed tack. 'When your car was parked in Skye Road, it was checked by the police.'

  'Oh.'

  'Were you aware of that?'

  'No.'

  'You were not aware of that?'

  'No. Well, I… when a friend of mine told me they heard my name over a scanner yesterday-'

  'Sorry?' asked Wilson.

  'A friend of mine told me… I spoke to her this morning. She said she heard my name mentioned over, and my address and details of my car, mentioned over a police scanner but-'

  'Who was that?'

  'Oh, her name's Donna Vanes.' Denyer explained that he had spoken to Donna Vanes around midday and she had told him that a friend of hers had a scanner and she was sitting in the car with the friend the previous day and had heard Denyer's name mentioned.

  'So you became aware today at midday that your car was checked by police yesterday in Skye Road?'

  'Yeah.'

  'In view of the fact that we had a caravan, and you've told us all here before, how you saw me in the caravan, did you think that it might have been important that your car was seen in Skye Road yesterday, and having knowledge that it was checked, that you might have wanted to come forward?' asked Wilson.

  'No, I didn't think it would be important to, you know, talk or anything till I got home today and I saw that card in the door.'

  'Did you hear any of the appeals on the radio?'

  'No.'

  'Did you hear on the radio that a body had been found in that area of Skye Road?'

  'No, not today. I've been listening to the radio in the car but-'

  'I thought you said, when I asked you before when you became aware of it, you said you had become aware of it.'

  'I read something in the paper this morning about a girl going missing and when I spoke to Sharon's mum today before I-'

  'When did you read that in the paper? Today?'

  'This morning.'

  'In what paper?'

  'Herald Sun. It was on the front cover.'

  'You read something about a girl going missing?'

  'Yeah, it was just a small paragraph…'

  Rod Wilson persisted with trying to establish just when Denyer had heard of the murder of the schoolgirl. Denyer again described driving up Skye Road and seeing Wilson.

  'You'd never seen me before?' asked the detective.

  'Oh, I saw you on the telly a couple of weeks ago but then-'

  'When did you see me on the telly? Who did you think I was?'

  'A policeman. It would've had your name and everything underneath.'

  'Well, where was I from? Did you know that?'

  'No, I just saw your name.'

  'So you saw me this morning and you saw a van set up. You knew that your name had been read out over the scanner with details of your car. You saw a caravan set up but you didn't think it would be relevant to say that you had your car parked there, knowing that the police had checked it?'

  'Well, I thought, you know, if the police, you know, checked my car out sitting there, it would be, you know, routine for them to come around and see me so-'

  'So you expected the police to come and see you?'

  'Yeah, I just thought, you know, you guys would come around, yeah.'

  Wilson nodded and then Denyer said, 'I didn't expect a whole heap of 'em but-'

  'Yeah, I appreciate that.'

  'You know what I mean.'

  'But when the police left a card just saying that there'd been a doorknock in the area, did you find that a bit of a surprise?'

  'No, no, cause Sharon's mum told me. She said, "Have yous had a doorknock yet?" I said, "No, we haven't been home today."'

  Wilson asked again what Denyer had known about his car being checked. 'Did you have any idea where it had been checked?'

  'Well, it must have been checked when I left it.'

  'Why was that?'

  'Because, I mean, the police couldn't have remembered the rego number just by looking at it from a distance. They'd have walked up to the window and had a look at the permit on the window cause-'

  'But why wouldn't they have checked it at the park in Langwarrin or at any other stage?'

  'Don't know.'

  'Why would you assume they checked it in Skye Road?'

  'Because I was with the car in Langwarrin and they… I didn't see any police except, you know, when I dropped the car off and I walked home. I mean, I couldn't have been there to see it.'

  Wilson questioned Denyer on this point, because he knew that the car had been checked in
both Skye Road and the Flora and Fauna Reserve. Yet Denyer was saying that he never left the car while it was parked in the reserve, and didn't see any police. He must be lying.

  Wilson had exhausted preliminary questions about Natalie Russell's murder and their suspect couldn't account for his movements apart from his story about leaving the car and walking home to get water and a screwdriver. Wilson moved the questioning around to the murder of Debbie Fream.

  'Do you recall another murder prior to Natalie Russell being found yesterday?'

  'Debbie Fream.'

  'Yeah,' said Wilson.

  'That caused a lot of publicity.'

  'Right,' agreed Wilson, 'What do you know about that?'

  'Oh well, I know about… I think she was abducted from the Food Plus and driven down Taylors Road where she was murdered there and then the killer drove her car back and dumped it in a street in Seaford.'

  'Do you know what street?'

  'Madden Street.'

  'Can you remember when it was?'

  'A couple of weeks ago or something. It was a Thursday night wasn't it? Yeah, Thursday night.'

  Denyer couldn't remember the exact date but when Rod Wilson asked him what his movements were on the night, Denyer remembered immediately.

  'Yep, I was at my brother's place during the day between 2.30 and 3.30. I was there for a while…the only thing I remember about that day is I was out the front of my place having a cigarette. My brothers drove past. They turned back around and came back to my place. I owed Richard some money, so I walked down to the Ampol and got some money out for him. When I got back home they said, you know, they're going to go up to his place, which is just up the road, and they're going to come back in about 10 minutes. So it was like half an hour later they hadn't come back and I was sitting there waiting. Then Richard came back by himself in Steven's car and said "Oh, have you got your money?" I said, "Yeah". I said, "Look, where's Steven?" and he said, "Oh, he's gone home." And I wanted to go to Steve's place that afternoon cause sitting at home all afternoon by yourself is boring, you know. And Richard said, "No, no, I don't know if…you'd have to ask Steven, and you can't ask him when he's already on his way there." So I said, you know, I was a bit annoyed about that and I said, "Well, I don't want to hang around here all day." So he took me to his place and dropped me off there.'

  Denyer gave the detectives his brother's address and continued describing his movements on the day Debbie Fream was murdered.

  'I was there for a little while. I was talking to, you know, a couple of guys that he lives there with. I don't know their real names but I just know 'em by their nicknames. I had a beer while I was there. I left - I can't remember exactly what time I left there - but I stopped at a bottle shop just down the corner and I bought a cask of wine cause Sharon asked me to get something to drink that night for tea. I got back home and started cooking the dinner, listened to some music, played some guitar, done some housework. I was there till about 20 past seven. I started walking down to Kananook station at about, you know, 20 past seven or so to catch the 7.36 train.'

  'Why did you have to catch the 7.36 train?' asked Wilson, knowing that Debbie Fream had gone missing around 7 pm.

  'Because me and Sharon had a schedule that I would meet her at Moorabbin station when she got dropped off there at night time so she wouldn't have to come home alone.'

  Wilson asked again where Sharon worked and Denyer said she worked at Multifit between 4.30 and 8pm. Their arrangement was that Denyer would catch a train and meet her at Moorabbin railway station at 8pm.

  Denyer reiterated that he left home around 7.20pm and walked down the Frankston-Dandenong Road to Hannah Street and turned left into Claude Street. He kept walking until he came to the railway bridge. When he got to the bridge he saw the train had pulled into the station; he was too late.

  Denyer said that he turned around and walked straight back home. He telephoned Multifit around 7.55pm to leave a message for Sharon that he would meet her at Kananook station rather than Moorabbin. Sharon caught the 8.15 train from Moorabbin and Denyer was at Kananook station to meet her when the train pulled in at 8.40pm.

  Wilson had Denyer restate all his movements: going to his brother's house, buying the cask of wine, missing the train and finally meeting Sharon.

  As far as Wilson was concerned, the times fit. Denyer normally picked Sharon up at Moorabbin Station, but on Thursday 8 July, he didn't. Not only that, he admitted to walking around streets that were relatively close to the McCulloch Avenue milk bar where Debbie Fream had bought eggs and milk. Denyer said that he walked to the station rather than drove because his car wasn't working at the time.

  Wilson broached the subject of the murder of Elizabeth Stevens, asking Denyer if he remembered it.

  'Well, I saw a big commotion on the telly, you know, stopping cars and giving out leaflets and everything like that.'

  'Do you recall where you were on the night she disappeared?'

  'I was home during the day. I can't exactly remember what I was doing or anything. Sharon was working at Multifit, you know, until eight o'clock. The usual time.

  'I went up to Sharon's mum's that day. I caught a cab up there. I sat around and watched a bit of telly with her mother and had a cup of tea and coffee and something to eat. Then I told her mother that I wanted to go up to mum's place to check out this battery that I had left there.'

  Denyer explained that he had taken Sharon's mum's dog for a walk then left to make a two or three kilometre walk to his mother's house to look at an old car battery. It had been around twilight when he left to walk to Langwarrin. Denyer couldn't remember the exact date, but he remembered that it was a Friday and there had been a bad storm that day which had knocked down some trees in the area. Denyer said that it was still raining when he set out to walk to his mother's house.

  Denyer said that the walk to his mother's had taken him around an hour and he had got wet in the rain.

  'So when you got to your mum's place, did you find this battery?' asked Wilson.

  'I couldn't find it in the front lawn where it was supposed to be. That's where I left it last.'

  'What, just lying in the weather?'

  'Oh, lying with, amongst the garbage bins and rubbish and things like that.'

  'What, you thought this battery might've been a good one for your car?'

  'Yeah.'

  'Kept in that condition?'

  'Yeah.'

  'Lying amongst the rubbish bins?'

  'Well, I didn't know. I just wanted to test it, that's all, but I couldn't find it there.'

  'But you would imagine that you - you're a man that's worked for months tuning cars at service stations…'

  'But I don't know a lot about batteries though.' Denyer said that he hadn't looked in the shed for the battery and he hadn't gone into the house because there were no cars out the front and no lights on. His younger brother had in fact been home and had told Paul the following day that he was there, however Denyer hadn't knocked.

  Wilson persisted with his questioning. 'Paul,' he said, 'let me understand that you've walked in the dark three kilometres for an hour to check to see if there's a battery for your car and you didn't even have a look for it?'

  'I had a look in the front lawn cause that's the only place where I thought it would be.'

  'But it might've been…you could have knocked on the door and said, "Does someone know where the battery's gone?" I mean you just walked an hour to find that battery and you didn't want to check if it was anywhere else?'

  'No, didn't think it would be anywhere else. Thought it might-'

  'But when did you last see it in the front garden, as you just said before, in amongst the rubbish bins?'

  'Last time I saw it… just trying to think the last time I was living there, about a year and a half ago, bit over a year and a half.'

  'So a year and a half ago, there was a battery sitting amongst the rubbish bins and you're honestly trying to tell me that you thought it m
ight have been okay?'

  Denyer tried to say that when he was working in the garage, they used old batteries all the time and that he honestly thought this old one could be charged up.

  'Do you know the area where Elizabeth Stevens was found?'

  'I know the park, but I don't know whereabouts in the park.'

  'Okay, do you know the name of the park?'

  'Yeah, Lloyd Park.'

  'How do you know Lloyd Park?'

  'Well, I used to live in the area and I used to drive down there with my brothers and drive back. And we know Lloyd Park. I used to smoke dope in there.' Denyer grinned.

  'Well on this Friday night, how do you know that we're talking about the night that you walked down there?'

  'Because the body was found the next day.'

  'How do you know that? How do you remember that?' asked Wilson.

  'Oh, it was on the news. I was sitting at home with Sharon that night round six o'clock or something. Saturday, it was on the news.'

  'So when you walked from Sharon's mother's place all that way in the drizzling rain to look for this battery that had been sitting in the rubbish for a year and a half, that you never even looked for in the end, and no one was home when you got there, how close were you to Lloyd Park on that night?'

  Denyer said that the closest point he got to Lloyd Park was about a fifteen minute walk.

  Rod Wilson decided it was time to lay the evidence before the man sitting opposite him. The detective went over Denyer's accounts of his movements: his car had been parked opposite the bike track where Natalie Russell was murdered; he had been walking the streets near Kananook railway station the night Debbie Fream was killed; and he was walking near Lloyd Park on the night Elizabeth Stevens was murdered.

  Wilson asked Denyer if he carried a knife and the suspect admitted that he usually carried a knife in his sock for protection. But, he added, he had forgotten to carry it on the night that Debbie Fream was murdered.

  'Are you responsible for the deaths of any of these women?'

  'No,' Denyer said, but he was beginning to look uncomfortable and defensive.

  Wilson asked him what he knew about the women and Denyer replied that he knew how they died. He had seen it on the telly.

  'Elizabeth Stevens had her throat cut and the other girl, Debbie Fream, had multiple stab wounds or something to her body and upper body, up here.' Denyer gestured to the right side of his neck.