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Speaker 1: On a nondescript summer morning nearly five decades ago, Detective PETERH.

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Speaker 1: Hiscock was one of the first to be confronted by

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Speaker 1: an especially distressing crime scene. It was Thursday, January thirteenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, and the bodies of two young women

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Speaker 1: lay on the floor of their small workers cottage in

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Speaker 1: Easy Street, Collingwood. They'd been dead for two days and

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Speaker 1: three long nights.

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Speaker 2: It would be absolutely fair to say that I'm seventy

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Speaker 2: five now, hardly a day goes by. I would say

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Speaker 2: that I don't think about this particular murder.

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Speaker 1: Thirty year old Peterhiscock was one of the first detectives

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Speaker 1: to enter the house in Easy Street, and he's never

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Speaker 1: forgotten it.

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Speaker 2: If I drive up Hoddle Street, it doesn't matter where

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Speaker 2: I'm going north or south, I always will go over

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Speaker 2: to Easy Street. I know it's changed, but it's just

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Speaker 2: something that happens to me. I just look up and

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Speaker 2: down there. Now. I've done an extraordinary amount of investigations

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Speaker 2: since that time, but there's always something that stays in

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Speaker 2: your mind, and those two murders stuck in my mind.

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Speaker 1: The murders of twenty seven year old Susan Bartlett and

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Speaker 1: twenty eight year old Susanne Armstrong in their own home

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Speaker 1: shook the staid city of Melbourne to its heart. Senior

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Speaker 1: police warned all women living in the city to take

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Speaker 1: care as a sex maniac was on the prow, even

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Speaker 1: going as far to advise them to lock their doors

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Speaker 1: and windows.

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Speaker 3: It's always concerned me the number of women who do

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Speaker 3: live alone or secondly stay alone in their homes and

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Speaker 3: seem to take no precautions at all. What do you

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Speaker 3: mean exactly, Well, they leave doors open, they leave windows open,

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Speaker 3: they leave lights on. In other words, they add the time,

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Speaker 3: the fact that they are home alone, leave blinds open

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Speaker 3: while they're watching Kelly in this sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: But are you suggesting that those women should lock themselves away.

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Speaker 3: I don't suggest they should put themselves in the form

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Speaker 3: of being imprisoned, but I think there are certain reasonable

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Speaker 3: security measures that people can take to ensure their safety.

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Speaker 1: Their language was almost visceral, the details released about the

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Speaker 1: attack unpleasantly blunt and from the outset. The deaths of

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Speaker 1: the two suits, as the friends were affectionately known, has

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Speaker 1: haunted investigators and community, and not just because of the

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Speaker 1: terrible violence involved. It's also been dogged by almost implausible circumstance.

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Speaker 1: Aside from Susan Bartlett and Suzanne Armstrong's killer, three other

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Speaker 1: men had gone in and out of their little house

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Speaker 1: as they lay dead, apparently unnoticed, just meters away, with

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Speaker 1: Suzanne's young son, Gregory, lonely dehydrated and hungary in his cot.

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Speaker 1: All three men claimed not to have seen or heard

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Speaker 1: anything suspicious during these nocturnal visits. The first to enter

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Speaker 1: the house was a friend of Susan's. Incredibly, the night

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Speaker 1: after she was killed, he walked up the side lane

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Speaker 1: of the property and climbed in her bedroom window, moving

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Speaker 1: into the hall, agonizingly close to her body to get

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Speaker 1: to the phone in the lounge room. He told police

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Speaker 1: later that he had been calling Susan and wanted to

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Speaker 1: check that he had the right phone number. After getting

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Speaker 1: no answer, reassured that he had the correct number after

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Speaker 1: checking the old fashioned war phone in the lounge. He

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Speaker 1: then retraced his steps, climbing back outer window and into

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Speaker 1: the laneway. A friend was waiting for him there in

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Speaker 1: the lane, so could verify this, as hard as it

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Speaker 1: is to believe. Twenty four hours later, two brothers entered

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Speaker 1: the house through the back door to see if Suzanne

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Speaker 1: was home. The oldest of the pair had taken her

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Speaker 1: out the previous weekend, and as arranged, tried to ring

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Speaker 1: to confirm the next date. Unable to reach her, the

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Speaker 1: shearer from Country Victoria decided to pay her a visit

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Speaker 1: at home, but he and his brother told detectives that

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Speaker 1: after calling out to see if Suzanne and her toddler

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Speaker 1: were home, they'd gone no further than the lounge that

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Speaker 1: night to check if anyone was there. Instead, the new

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Speaker 1: suitor left a note on the kitchen table asking Suzanne

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Speaker 1: to call him.

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Speaker 4: I went around there that night and just knocked at

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Speaker 4: the front door, and there was a note on the door,

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Speaker 4: and there was still no answer. So I went down

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Speaker 4: the side and the gate was half way open, and

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Speaker 4: the door was half way open, and there was a

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Speaker 4: light on, and you, brother, I got a note and

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Speaker 4: for her to ring me. And then you know, if

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Speaker 4: I had walked in a little bit further, well, I

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Speaker 4: would have spot on you another couple of yards.

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Speaker 2: Did it ever occur to you to look in the

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Speaker 2: rest of the house.

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Speaker 4: Not really, No, I don't like going in people's houses.

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Speaker 4: You know while there's snowing there, So it's being shocked

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Speaker 4: to me. Yeah, well, Ida, it was gout to shakes

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Speaker 4: and smoke. Can't even eat.

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Speaker 1: Forty seven years later, it beggars belief that three people

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Speaker 1: did not see here or sense anything amiss when inside

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Speaker 1: a house beset by such trauma. Then again, what kind

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Speaker 1: of person could encounter a scene like that and not

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Speaker 1: raise the alarm. Police believed the three men had nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with the murders. They were quickly cleared as

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Speaker 1: suspects by detectives. The first visitor even allowed to leave

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Speaker 1: the country before the coroner's inquest was held, and not

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Speaker 1: much was made of their presence at all. But there's

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Speaker 1: no denying that their failure to notice anything wrong meant

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Speaker 1: that two young women slain had to wait almost two

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Speaker 1: and a half days to be found in the summer

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Speaker 1: heat in the heart of a busy city. Disconcerting two

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Speaker 1: was the fact a man already linked to the disappearance

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Speaker 1: of a nineteen year old woman in the city just

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Speaker 1: eighteen months earlier, and only a couple of suburbs away,

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Speaker 1: had been staying next door on the night of the

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Speaker 1: Easy Street murders. For detectives it was a coincidence, too

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Speaker 1: ugly to ignore. What were the odds of anyone being

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Speaker 1: so close to two such cases? Improbably this man was

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Speaker 1: also a crime reporter with Melbourne's Truth newspaper. Such strange

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Speaker 1: twists of fact in a high profile homicide investigation are

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Speaker 1: almost too bizarre to be true, but they are. When

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Speaker 1: alone of Stevens and her housemate Janet Powell caught their

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Speaker 1: neighbor's young dog running loose in the street, they had

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Speaker 1: no idea of the saga about to engulf them, a

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Speaker 1: saga still without end nearly fifty years later. Like the

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Speaker 1: two suits, they were bright, busy young women, aloner working

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Speaker 1: at the Truth newspaper, Janet co managing Casanova, an Italian

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Speaker 1: restaurant in Carlton. The four women had only lived side

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Speaker 1: by side for a few months and so hadn't had

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Speaker 1: time to really get to know each other.

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Speaker 5: Look just as neighbors, nodding hello, how are you? How's baby?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 5: Nice, nice puppy, but not that well, just to talk to,

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Speaker 5: because don't forget, Janet and I both worked chief work

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Speaker 5: and they worked regular jobs, so because our hours were

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Speaker 5: so different, we really didn't ever become friendly, although we

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Speaker 5: were roughly the same age.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well let's go back to that week of January

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven. When did you first notice that something

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Speaker 1: might be wrong, something might be a miss.

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Speaker 5: Well, probably when I got home from work, because the

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Speaker 5: dog was out, and that was very well. It was

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Speaker 5: just strange because we lived it's near, very near Hoddle Street,

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Speaker 5: and it was only a puppy, so you just don't

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Speaker 5: let your dog out, even though in those days, of

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Speaker 5: course people were more careless, but it just was unusual

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Speaker 5: because they weren't careless people. That was Tuesday, so I

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Speaker 5: would have got home from work, puppy was out, went

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Speaker 5: straight round, knocked on doc, no answer. Well, I just

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Speaker 5: thought that were out, So I took the puppy back

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Speaker 5: into our house and just kept it and thought, no, well,

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Speaker 5: we'll hear them come home and I'll whip next door then,

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Speaker 5: but of course heard nothing.

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Speaker 1: Later that Tuesday evening, Alona and Janet tried another tack.

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Speaker 1: They left a note on the front door of one

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Speaker 1: four seven. It read, dear sus, we have your dog

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Speaker 1: which was wandering around the street. You're obviously not home,

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Speaker 1: so give us a yell and we'll return. Same to

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Speaker 1: you promptly, regards Alona and Janet. Alona left for work

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Speaker 1: the next morning and didn't notice the note was still there,

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Speaker 1: exactly where they'd left it, But when she got back

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Speaker 1: home later that Wednesday evening, she saw the note was

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Speaker 1: still pinned to the door and the young dog was

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Speaker 1: still in their backyard. More worryingly, as she got ready

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Speaker 1: for bed, she could hear little Greg crying, albeit softly,

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Speaker 1: from beyond the party wall the two cottages shared.

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Speaker 5: Probably by Wednesday night, we were well, Janet not so

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Speaker 5: much because she was real busy, you know, the two

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Speaker 5: of them were trying to run a restaurant and she

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Speaker 5: would just come home, exhausted, fall into bed, get up

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Speaker 5: next day, go back to the restaurant. But yeah, just

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Speaker 5: was odd. The note was still on the door, We

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Speaker 5: still have the dog, and periodically I thought I could

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Speaker 5: hear Greg crying. Wimprings. Not nothing major, but you know,

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Speaker 5: you put that sort of stuff out of your mind.

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Speaker 1: By Thursday morning, both a loner and her housemate Janet

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Speaker 1: sent something really wasn't right. A loner recalls being a

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Speaker 1: bit cross that a neighbors still hadn't collected their dog,

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Speaker 1: but she was becoming increasingly uneasy about Greg's welfare, so

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Speaker 1: before going to work, the pair decided to try their

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Speaker 1: neighbor's front door again. They knocked loudly, banging harder the

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Speaker 1: next time, then harder again. Still no answer. Nothing.

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Speaker 5: So I decided I'd hop the fence and opened the

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Speaker 5: gate and put the dog in the air. The gate

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Speaker 5: was onto the lame way in their garden. We didn't

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Speaker 5: have a gate in our garden, so that's when I

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Speaker 5: hopped the fence. First thing Thursday morning.

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Speaker 1: When Alana walked through the back door and into the kitchen,

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Speaker 1: she sang out to the girls to see if they

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Speaker 1: were home. She quickly passed through the small lounge room

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Speaker 1: and into the hallway that ran along three rooms and

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Speaker 1: up to the front door. As her eyes adjusted to

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Speaker 1: the dim light, she saw Susan face down on her

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Speaker 1: stomach in the hall, heartbreakingly close to that front door,

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Speaker 1: and then moving forward, Suzanne on her back on the

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Speaker 1: floor of the first bedroom. It was a tableau of

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Speaker 1: unfathomable tragedy. Alner could see the women had been brutally killed.

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Speaker 1: What she couldn't know at the time was that they

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Speaker 1: had been stabbed collectively more than eighty times and Suzanne

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Speaker 1: raped after death.

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Speaker 5: The back door was open, well, not wide open, but

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Speaker 5: certainly unlocked in Ajar. So I walked in saying, do

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Speaker 5: you who? Anyone home? And got no reply. But as

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Speaker 5: soon as I looked up the hallway it was completely

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Speaker 5: obvious why there was no reply.

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Speaker 1: And what did you see?

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Speaker 5: I actually saw Susan's feet and they didn't look real flash.

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Speaker 5: They were you know, sort of black, and you just

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Speaker 5: look and you know, you go, oh, this is bad.

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Speaker 5: Because the hallway had no windows, you know, the windows

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Speaker 5: were in the rooms, so it's quite dark. But I

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Speaker 5: do remember clearly seeing her feet and they weren't moving.

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Speaker 1: What confronted her as she walked through the house remains daunting,

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Speaker 1: especially that long check up the hallway to where Susan

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Speaker 1: lay to see if there was anything she could do

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Speaker 1: to help her.

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Speaker 5: Well, I was still in the middle of going you who,

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Speaker 5: So I walked down and as I got closer to her,

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Speaker 5: it was very obvious that she was dead, and I

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Speaker 5: kind of knelt over just to make sure I didn't

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Speaker 5: touch her. She was right. Her head was right at

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Speaker 5: the front door, and that's when I looked sideways into

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Speaker 5: the front bedroom and saw Suzanne. It was obvious that

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Speaker 5: Susan had been almost brutalized. There was sort of handmarks

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Speaker 5: on the wall. But Suzanne was lying on her back

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Speaker 5: and fairly scantily clad, and it was quite obvious she

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Speaker 5: was dead too, And so I just then I turned

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Speaker 5: and walked out and yelled out to Janet to call

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Speaker 5: the police.

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Speaker 1: In her haste to check on Susan and Suzanne alone

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Speaker 1: hadn't even glanced at sixteen month old Greg Armstrong, who

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Speaker 1: was in his cot in the middle bedroom, But as

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Speaker 1: she headed to the back door, she checked on the

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Speaker 1: little boy.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 5: I actually walked in there and had a look at him.

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Speaker 5: He was I guess he was probably dehydrated, but he

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Speaker 5: seemed fine. So I just kept going and yelling out

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Speaker 5: for Janet to quickly call the police.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember how she responded to you. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it must have been a shock for her even hearing that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I recall she just sort of went why and

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Speaker 5: I said, the girls are dead, and she just ran

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Speaker 5: inside because in those days we had the black dialar phone,

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Speaker 5: so she dialed the police and I just waited outside

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Speaker 5: at the front, no out the side, and Alona Stevens

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Speaker 5: had to wait for a while.

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Speaker 1: She's pretty sure. It took two telephone calls to get

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Speaker 1: the local police to take seriously what a housemate was

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Speaker 1: reporting two women were dead in the house next door,

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Speaker 1: but even then only a young uniformed officer was dispatched

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Speaker 1: to see what was going on. One uniformed officer.

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Speaker 5: Things sort of moved slowly in your mind, but I

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Speaker 5: do remember thinking this is urgent, and then of course

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Speaker 5: one car rolled up with someone who is probably my age, saying,

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Speaker 5: you know what's going on here? And I said, I

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Speaker 5: think my neighbors have been killed.

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Speaker 1: The pattern of not hearing women trying to share information

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Speaker 1: with police that shadowed this and other call cases in

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Speaker 1: Victoria started even before the official investigation.

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Speaker 5: I remember there was no urgency from anybody. They certainly

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Speaker 5: were not believing us, and hence they sent the young

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Speaker 5: man in one car. I was waiting in the lane,

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Speaker 5: so he came up to me and I said, look,

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Speaker 5: you need to go inside.

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Speaker 4: They did.

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Speaker 5: He did walk inside, and within it seemed like five

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Speaker 5: seconds there were police and cars and uniform and non uniform,

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Speaker 5: and we were surrounded by activity.

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Speaker 1: Finally, Victoria's homicide squad was at the scene.

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Speaker 2: Going there on that day myself, Graha McDonald got a

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Speaker 2: call that there was a double death in a house

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Speaker 2: in Collingwood. It's a lower socio economic area those times,

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Speaker 2: so you never assume anything, but it was quite possible

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Speaker 2: it was a murder suicide or just a double suicide.

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Speaker 4: Who would know.

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Speaker 2: We had no idea because the uniform police had been

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Speaker 2: there and they were not to go in. So when

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Speaker 2: we arrived there was a young policeman just inside the door.

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Speaker 2: He's been guarding it and it was just a scene

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Speaker 2: that you'd never ever forget in your life.

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Speaker 1: Former Detective Peter Hiscock remained struck by the horrific nature

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Speaker 1: of the attacks on both women, Susanne Armstrong first in

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Speaker 1: her bedroom and then Susan Bartlett in the hall.

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Speaker 2: Still to this day now we're talking about it now,

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Speaker 2: I can see it just like a video in my mind.

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Speaker 2: And of course then we went around the back being

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Speaker 2: the scene. Now scenes that protected a whole lot better

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Speaker 2: now than they were there. They're protected then, but they've

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Speaker 2: changed a lot now and what you see on TV

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Speaker 2: is probably what happens now, but not in those days.

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Speaker 2: You're just going to see what's happened. For a start

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Speaker 2: to quickly try and assess it. But it didn't take

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Speaker 2: myself and Grahea McDonald very long to work out. This

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Speaker 2: was one terrible, terrible murder. Two murders that occurred.

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Speaker 1: And what did this scene initially, Peter tell you about

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Speaker 1: how the girls had died, what the killer had done.

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Speaker 2: Killer had used a knife, would have to have been

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Speaker 2: a big knife because of the defensive wounds in Susan

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Speaker 2: Bartlett's arms. Susan Armstrong had massive, massive, multiple, multiple stab wounds,

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Speaker 2: and it looked like there was no forced entry, so

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Speaker 2: already it was starting to unfold. This was something quite unique,

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Speaker 2: no forced entry. Two girls brutally murdered. Now, in those

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Speaker 2: days you wouldn't see too many, and I don't recall

295
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Speaker 2: those days too many brutal murders like these two. I mean,

296
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Speaker 2: with time the internet, we'd see lots of lots of

297
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Speaker 2: these things. But back in those days, back in nineteen

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Speaker 2: seventy seven in Victoria, in Collingwood, that was one massive

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Speaker 2: double murder.

300
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Speaker 1: The fact that they found young Greg and his court

301
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Speaker 1: having survived such an ordeal still amazes this veteran investigator.

302
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Speaker 2: Well, we were both young parents, Graham and I and

303
00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,680
Speaker 2: of course that was very disturbing. He had been there

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Speaker 2: and if I recall, the temperatures were in excess of

305
00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:33,119
Speaker 2: one hundred degrees. Now in Celsius, what are we talking,

306
00:18:33,200 --> 00:18:36,919
Speaker 2: this is up over forty degrees. So he was in

307
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Speaker 2: there totally totally exhausted, totally dehydrated, been the same nappy,

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Speaker 2: and was quite surprising to me that he was still alive. So,

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Speaker 2: I mean, at that age he obviously couldn't witness anything.

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Speaker 2: But whether the killer missed him or whatever, I don't know,

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Speaker 2: or killer as we would never know. I still to

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Speaker 2: this day think it was only one person.

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Speaker 1: Peter Hescock says the scene he and his colleagues encountered

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Speaker 1: that morning was dire. Nevertheless, it revealed a lot about

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Speaker 1: the murderer, and quite quickly.

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Speaker 2: Well, if robbery was not a motive, the bathroom we

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Speaker 2: now we learned straight away that the killer had stood

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Speaker 2: in the bath and washed himself down with blood, because

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Speaker 2: he would have been covered in blood. It would have

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Speaker 2: been very, very brutal.

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Speaker 4: So whether.

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Speaker 2: He's done this to wash himself off forensics, or whether

323
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Speaker 2: he's just done that as an instinctive, it's hard to know.

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Speaker 2: There wasn't a lot of blood in there, but it

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Speaker 2: was yeah, we could tell from going back there that

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Speaker 2: that's what happened. Yes, it was very unusual when there's

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Speaker 2: no DNA in those days, I mean blood types or something.

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Speaker 2: I mean pretty we have a lot of people have

329
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Speaker 2: got A or B or whatever. So that was there.

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Speaker 2: That was obviously called for the forensics. But something that

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00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:12,280
Speaker 2: we did was took the plumbing apart and at the

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00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:17,920
Speaker 2: elbow there was pieces of bone. Now these were pieces

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Speaker 2: of these defensive wounds that Susan Bartlett had put up.

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Speaker 1: What you took the bath apart or you were under

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Speaker 1: the under the house.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I personally wasn't there when that happened, but it was, yes,

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00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:34,040
Speaker 2: it was pulled apart. I actually had to escort the

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Speaker 2: to deceased to the mortuary and I had to be

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00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:42,879
Speaker 2: present whilst the post mortems were undertaken and thereby we

340
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Speaker 2: were given samples of their blood, hair, nails and for continuity.

341
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,359
Speaker 2: They then have to be conveyed back to the forensic

342
00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:55,359
Speaker 2: science by one person to the other break continuity. So

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Speaker 2: that was my job. So I was present and that's

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Speaker 2: why I'm certain that I know who was murdered first.

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Speaker 1: And talking about at the Morgue, Peter, I mean, how

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Speaker 1: traumatic was that for you as a young detective. You're

347
00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,800
Speaker 1: only thirty. From what you've said to me over the years,

348
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Speaker 1: you were actually helping him take account of the number

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Speaker 1: of times both women had been stabbed.

350
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you would stand it's close to this table. You

351
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Speaker 2: would stand there with a clipboard noting on a diagram

352
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Speaker 2: of a female body where stab wounds were. It is traumatic,

353
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Speaker 2: but we were taught and always emphasized by that pathologist

354
00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:45,639
Speaker 2: that the exhibits that can help us. For instance, is

355
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:51,439
Speaker 2: the person right handed, is he left handed without uppercuts

356
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,439
Speaker 2: lower cuts, so he changed hands to do other wounds

357
00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:00,720
Speaker 2: because there was strongly amount of stab wounds. And also

358
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 2: was one killed earlier and then someone came back and

359
00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:09,240
Speaker 2: killed the other one. Those I mean, it's quite basic

360
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:14,320
Speaker 2: stuff that unfolds very quickly. But you have to be

361
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Speaker 2: there to know these things, and it's not theathologists job

362
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,240
Speaker 2: to work out these things, but they are very helpful.

363
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Speaker 2: And these are things that when you interview someone only

364
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Speaker 2: you will know if someone's telling lies and also tell

365
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:31,879
Speaker 2: if someone's just making it up or wanting to be famous,

366
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Speaker 2: and that's happened, that's happened many times.

367
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Speaker 1: So what did his time with pathologist James McNamara tell

368
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,000
Speaker 1: him about the Easy Street killer? Was he left or

369
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:43,639
Speaker 1: right handed?

370
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,879
Speaker 2: I'm thinking it was a right handed person that just

371
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:49,280
Speaker 2: he would have been a powerful unit. He would have

372
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 2: been powerful because of the amount of stab wornds making

373
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Speaker 2: sure that he killed them. And Susan Bartlett had put

374
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 2: up a massive fight in the hallway, so she's heard

375
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 2: the noise and come down, and that's why it makes

376
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:10,119
Speaker 2: sense someone's come in the front door. Susan Armstrong was

377
00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 2: reading a book, she had the light on. She's put

378
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 2: the book down, the pages open, and just thrown the

379
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,080
Speaker 2: sheets back and hopped out to see who it was.

380
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 2: And then she was struck right between leaving her bed

381
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:24,880
Speaker 2: very small house, of course, and before getting into the passageway.

382
00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:31,200
Speaker 2: But she was moved further, we believe after she was dead.

383
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 2: But then Susan Bartlett's come out of her room down

384
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Speaker 2: to see what's going on, and that's when it's second

385
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 2: murders occurred. But it would have been a lot harder.

386
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:44,720
Speaker 2: Susan Armstrong wouldn't known what was going to happen to her.

387
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,440
Speaker 2: She would have just met this person and that's why

388
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 2: we always thought he personally thought must have been someone

389
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 2: they knew.

390
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,040
Speaker 1: Peterhiscock is still goold by the time. He and his

391
00:23:57,080 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 1: partner wasted early on in a case that was already

392
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:02,399
Speaker 1: getting caught as they tried to link the footprint on

393
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,160
Speaker 1: Susan's bed cover that was left by the first male

394
00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,679
Speaker 1: visitor to the house after the women were killed. And

395
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Speaker 1: then there was the newspaper dated that very day, January thirteenth,

396
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven.

397
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:18,880
Speaker 2: This paper was puzzling, we thought, Graham and I thought

398
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 2: straight away that this offender has come back. He's come

399
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 2: back to see his work or whatever. We just were puzzled.

400
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 2: We spoke to the young policeman. There no nothing. So

401
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 2: we actually took them back to the Collingwood Police station

402
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,560
Speaker 2: for a briefing and one of the young fellows we

403
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:42,399
Speaker 2: said to look, no one's in any trouble. If they

404
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:45,840
Speaker 2: went into the house, no one's any trouble. What had

405
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,280
Speaker 2: turned out one of the young fellows thinking I've got

406
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 2: to sit here for wile and guard this scene. He's

407
00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,400
Speaker 2: taken the newspaper in when we've arrived, she just put

408
00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 2: it down stepped outside as if to say, well, I

409
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:00,800
Speaker 2: was here, I didn't go inside, hid me that he'd

410
00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 2: beat in. Well, of course that can change investigation very quickly,

411
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 2: as I said, the first twenty four hours, because we're thinking, wow,

412
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:11,280
Speaker 2: this guy's not far away. It was quite quite exciting.

413
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 2: So he admitted that, so things changed. Back to the

414
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 2: problem we had was that it was like three hours

415
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 2: and we had to wait for post wards. So the

416
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:28,159
Speaker 2: investigation then was ramped right up. Of course, the press

417
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 2: were all over this. This was probably one of the

418
00:25:30,280 --> 00:25:33,239
Speaker 2: most horrific crimes around that time, and the press got

419
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:38,439
Speaker 2: hold of this, but it was a difficult investigation. In

420
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:44,720
Speaker 2: the meantime, we had other serious murders, one out in

421
00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:48,639
Speaker 2: the jail, some bikeies, two bikeies. These are all going

422
00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:52,199
Speaker 2: on up in the country. So looking back now to

423
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 2: something that happened like that, now, with the resources you

424
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 2: would have, you'd be able to put a lot more

425
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 2: into it. But that being said, we covered every every track,

426
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:05,199
Speaker 2: and I believe I go back in my mind a

427
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,040
Speaker 2: lot because I read things and you criticize. I'd like

428
00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:12,160
Speaker 2: to think that I was Sorah I would have loved

429
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,840
Speaker 2: and all sort of loved were solved. I would hope

430
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:19,119
Speaker 2: as of getting on in my ears that we would

431
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:23,920
Speaker 2: be able to solve it and I would be absolutely devastated.

432
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 2: There was something that we'd missed.

433
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:31,520
Speaker 1: Looking back, he shouldn't be too hard on himself. Then,

434
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: A young detective, Peterhiscock, was rostered off on annual leave

435
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,879
Speaker 1: days after walking into the little house in Easy Street

436
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:42,639
Speaker 1: and never reassigned to the case. But something was missed

437
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: in those summer days of January nineteen seventy seven, and

438
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 1: nearly five decades later, Susan and Suzanne's deaths remained distant

439
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:55,639
Speaker 1: yet impossibly close for family, friends, and at least one detective.

440
00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 2: Look, this guy has done something so bad, so bad

441
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:07,399
Speaker 2: that yeah, humanity just would never even forgive him, no

442
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,640
Speaker 2: matter who the relative was. What he did to those

443
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 2: two girls could never ever ever be forgiven by anyone.

444
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,399
Speaker 1: Next time, on the Easy Street Murders.

445
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:33,000
Speaker 5: Forty five years ago, a single mother was regarded very poorly.

446
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 4: My girlfriend rang me at work and said there's been

447
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 4: a murder in Collingwood.

448
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 5: She didn't turn up, so we rang.

449
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:45,080
Speaker 2: She didn't answer.