The Frankston Murders

In my previous post I described the murder of Elizabeth Stevens and the attack on Roszsa Troth, and how Denyer had caught a train to nearby Kananook.

Leaving the train at Kananook, Denyer roamed the streets for some hours. His next victim was to be 22 year old Debbie Fream, mother of twelve day old son Jake. She needed some milk and eggs and drove to a corner store to make her purchases. While she was in the store, he hid in the back seat of her car. He produced an imitation firearm and forced her to drive to a lonely stretch of Taylors Road in Carrum Downs. He strangled her, and stabbed her more than twenty times in the throat and body before dumping her in the scrub. He then drove her car back to Seaford, parked it, and walked home.

Over the next few weeks he made elaborate plans for his next attack. He cut holes in the cyclone fencing that surrounded the Long Island Golf Club and dug a lair in dense scrub. Seated in his car in Skye Road, Frankston on July 30th he saw seventeen year old Natalie Russell walking along the bike track that ran alongside the fence. As she drew level with one of the holes he grabbed her, strangled her and stabbed her. At this moment the police were only fifty meters away, examining Denyer’s parked car. With his hands covered in blood, he began to walk back to the car and saw the police. Unperturbed, he changed direction and walked home.

Police investigations began to point to Denyer and he was interviewed by detectives on the following day. Although initially unwilling to cooperate, when confronted with the notion that DNA evidence would be advanced, he confessed to the horrors of the previous months.

Denyer entered a guilty plea to three counts of murder and one of kidnapping Troth. On December 20 he was sentenced to three life sentences with no minimum jail term. Justice Frank Vincent described the crimes as beyond comprehension.

“For many, you are the fear that quickens their steps as they walk alone, or that causes a parent to look anxiously at a clock when a child is late. I suspect you will never fully comprehend why this should be so, as, for reasons that we do not understand, you are not one of us.”

In a few words, Justice Vincent had encapsulated the situation. Denyer was not of this world. His plans and actions were vile and destructive.

In my next post I will reprint an edited version of the police interviews. They are particularly horrifying for the way Denyer retains an icy calm as he recounts the detail of the murders, and fails to show a scintilla of remorse.