Australian Crime Stories The Investigators Season 3 Episode 3

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Transcript

00:00It is difficult to have been a person

00:27living in the 70s and 80s and not have heard of the Mackay sister murders.

00:32Seven-year-old Judith and five-year-old Susan Mackay were taken while waiting for the bus

00:36to Aikenvale School.

00:38We're dealing with an 86-year-old suspect. He could no longer hide from these crimes.

00:47Brisbane Homicide Squad detectives raided the man's house this morning.

00:50It was like standing in front of your grandfather.

00:53It's one of Queensland's most notorious crimes.

00:56Is your husband innocent little girl?

00:58Yes, he is.

01:00He would have committed sex offences for 50 years.

01:03These kids knew what he was, a pedophile.

01:07What grandad wants, grandad gets.

01:11Was he a serial killer?

01:13He said, those little girls are just prick teasers.

01:16Prick teasers? Who makes that comment?

01:18He was just an evil, evil man.

01:21I just don't know how he got away with it for that long.

01:26God.

01:27It's just terrible.

01:29My name is Brendan Rook.

01:39I'm a former detective sergeant of the Queensland Police.

01:42Over the years, the one thing that I have spent a lot of time doing is working on cold case homicides.

01:49And the Mackay sisters would be the very first I actually worked on in 1998.

02:04Susan was five years of age.

02:06Judith was seven years of age.

02:07The youngest of six children of Bill and Thelma Mackay.

02:11They both attended the Aitken Vale Primary School.

02:14Every morning, their mother would watch them walk to the bus stop, which was some 200 metres away from home.

02:22And the children would catch the bus on the same road to the school, which wasn't far away.

02:28The father, Bill Mackay, had left early before the girls went to school, had kissed them goodbye.

02:36And that was actually the last that Bill would ever see of his two young girls.

02:43This sort of thing just doesn't happen in Townsville.

02:46The children just go missing.

02:53By dawn the next morning, the police had organised a search of the area.

02:58The coordinated effort pretty much had Townsville in a shutdown.

03:04There were literally thousands of people that participated.

03:12And the two days after the girls had gone missing, they were found.

03:18The first body to be located was that of Susan's.

03:29She had two stab wounds to the upper part of her chest.

03:37Judith's body was found an hour later, away from the road and further into the scrub.

03:42Sort of potentially indicating that Judith may have been running away.

03:46And there was signs of struggle.

03:48She was located face down naked and her head was pushed into the sand.

03:54She too had also been stabbed twice.

03:58But the cause of her death was the sand in the lungs.

04:01Both girls had been raped.

04:10The father, Bill, was taken out to the scene.

04:12And the detectives had to restrain him from trying to view the bodies.

04:17Yeah, this is one of the crime scene photos.

04:26These are the girls' bags, school bags.

04:30This property was located very close to the body of Susan.

04:34As far as the crime scene was concerned, the investigators at the time had very little to go on.

04:43What they did find, which was strange at a scene like this,

04:47is the girls' clothes uniforms were neatly folded next to the bodies.

04:52I think it was very difficult for the investigators as well at the time

04:57that just the crime scene photos alone, it was a very emotional time for everybody.

05:03Obviously, it's a cold case for a reason.

05:09The case went cold and by 1971, all inquiries have been exhausted.

05:16I'm very careful not to criticise the investigators in Townsville at the time.

05:25They were working through the night, through their holidays.

05:30There was one investigator that vowed not to go home until the killer was located.

05:37And in fact, a couple of weeks later, he had a heart attack and actually died at work.

05:43In our reinvestigation in 1998, we relied on local knowledge

05:54from a veteran Townsville detective, Ray Charles Smith,

05:57who'd been working in the city since the mid-60s.

06:00And local knowledge from that era was crucial to the investigation.

06:04In those days, you didn't really care about locking your front door

06:09or leaving the keys in your car.

06:11When they went missing there, it seemed that half the town didn't go to work.

06:17The next day and then, it was all on the radio and all that.

06:21From the start, investigators were trying to find a particular type of car

06:25thought to have been involved in the abduction

06:27that had been mentioned by witnesses.

06:31Well, everyone had their hopes pinned on a FJ Holden with a blue door

06:38and that was the centre of attention.

06:41But there was a problem when I took a look at the original statements.

06:45One thing that hit me straight away,

06:49all the statements were saying something like an FJ Holden.

06:54Taking yourself back in time, FJ Holdens were a fairly popular vehicle

06:59and everyone knew what an FJ Holden looked like.

07:02So I didn't quite understand why most of the statements

07:06would read something like an FJ Holden.

07:09My view is you either know an FJ Holden or you don't.

07:12So that was probably the first red flag for me.

07:16To some witnesses, the car looked like an FJ Holden,

07:20possibly even an EH Holden.

07:22Similar, but not definitely either of these models.

07:27Regrettably, the investigators and Ray Superiors

07:30ran with the belief that the killer drove an FJ Holden.

07:35The investigators had rounded up every person in Townsville

07:40with an FJ Holden with an off-driver side blue door in Townsville.

07:43Every one of those people were interrogated

07:46and eventually identified as not being responsible.

07:52They never looked for any other blue cars other than Holden's.

07:56That was despite the fact that several witnesses

07:59had identified another vehicle,

08:01an imported British car called a Vauxhall Victor.

08:05Thank you, Gerry.

08:09So these three pictures, we have an FJ Holden,

08:19an EH Holden, and we have the Vauxhall Victor.

08:24We have two witnesses and later a third

08:28that said it was a Vauxhall Victor.

08:30The witnesses were very clear that they said it was a Vauxhall vehicle.

08:34It wasn't something like a Vauxhall.

08:36They were saying it was a Vauxhall.

08:39Unfortunately, the information about the Vauxhall was disregarded.

08:44They've chosen to follow a wrong path.

08:46Some witnesses' statements had been influenced by investigators

08:49into suggesting the vehicle was an FJ Holden.

08:53Investigators also thought the killer was already sitting in a jail cell.

08:57There was a Western Australian inmate

09:02who would make admissions to killing the girls.

09:05The reason for that was he apparently

09:08was feared being killed in prison in Western Australia

09:11and wanted to do time in Queensland.

09:13He also had an FJ Holden.

09:15So he actually fitted in with the narrative.

09:18So he was flown to Townsville

09:21where it quickly became clear he'd been lying all along.

09:25Unfortunately, I think the police have spent

09:30too much time on the vehicle

09:34and disregarded the description of the offender.

09:39I can't say that it would have changed

09:43the course of the investigation for them.

09:45However, I think maybe now

09:51they would have done things a little bit differently.

10:02Seven-year-old Judith and five-year-old Susan Mackay

10:05were taken from Ross River Road

10:07while waiting for the bus to Aikenvale School.

10:09In 1974, Cyclone Wanda hit Queensland

10:34and flooded Brisbane,

10:35destroying many of the police records in storage.

10:38Unfortunately, that included evidence

10:40in the Mackay sisters' case.

10:42The crime scene photos survived.

10:44However, some evidence crucial to the investigation

10:47in particular, the girls' clothing

10:49and swabs taken from the bodies

10:51were lost.

10:53Without all the evidence,

11:05we were struggling.

11:06So we needed a bit of luck

11:09and we got it.

11:11A woman who'd been bottling up a long-held secret

11:15rang Crime Stoppers

11:17and asked to speak with someone

11:18regarding a murder in Queensland

11:2030 years ago.

11:22She was referred to me

11:24and Detective Hickey.

11:25I said to them,

11:30look, I think Arthur Brown has killed these two children.

11:35He had murdered the two little girls.

11:38Arthur Stanley Brown,

11:43patriarch of Mim's family.

11:46We'd never heard of him before.

11:48His name didn't appear anywhere in the files from 1970s.

11:52He'd never been spoken to.

11:55Didn't appear on any running sheets.

11:57So the Townsville detectives weren't even aware

11:59of Arthur Stanley Brown.

12:01And this is the problem with the investigation in 1970

12:05that Brown had not been charged with any offences.

12:07Brown was not a suspect at any stage.

12:10They just said,

12:11we're coming up.

12:12I've never been so glad to see two people

12:15as I was to meet them.

12:18Mim told us Brown was a maintenance man

12:20for the Queensland Government,

12:22a carpenter who worked in official buildings,

12:25police stations, courthouses and schools,

12:29including Aitkenvale School

12:32where the Mackay sisters went.

12:34And most importantly,

12:37Mim told us about a dark family secret.

12:40Mim provided information

12:43in relation to child sexual abuses

12:46and rapes committed on family members

12:49of Arthur Stanley Brown.

12:52We're not talking about child abusing.

12:54We're actually talking about

12:56full-on vaginal rape of young children.

13:01And he would commit a lot of these offences

13:03whilst Hester, his then wife,

13:06was in the house.

13:08I was 12.

13:09I reckon I was about 12 when I first met him.

13:12My Aunty Hester was Arthur Brown's first wife

13:15that I know of.

13:17They met when she was out west somewhere.

13:21Her husband was working on the railway

13:25and Mr. Brown got her to leave her husband.

13:29She had three children too.

13:31And he took the children and her.

13:35He never changed over the years.

13:39He always had that slab-sided face,

13:42not a whole lot of hair, big ears.

13:45Yeah, and that was just him.

13:48Mim didn't live with Arthur and Hester Brown,

13:52but she knew exactly what happened in the house.

13:56Thanks, Mim.

13:58Louth Street, huh?

14:01The House of Horrors.

14:05That's what it is.

14:07In this house, he had a little shrine

14:10which had been one of the bedrooms

14:13and the room was always locked.

14:16Mim told us the door to this room had two locks

14:19so it could be bolted from the inside.

14:23This is where we would later discover

14:25Arthur Brown often took his victims.

14:28He had the girls sitting there drinking

14:31and playing strip jack naked.

14:34So they were all in different parts of being naked.

14:41When the girls used to come over and stay,

14:44he went into the bathroom and bathed the girls.

14:47And they'd say,

14:50Granddad, you know, I'm however age.

14:53No, no, no, you've got to be bathed properly.

14:55That's the sort of thing he used to do.

14:58And also, he molested his little step-granddaughters

15:03down the back of the house.

15:04Brown abused girls in the family aged between three and 13.

15:12At least six young girls.

15:18Hester actually caught him raping one of the children.

15:22There was one day he had one of the girls,

15:27his pants were round his ankle

15:29and he had one of the little girls doing oral sex on him

15:32in the kitchen.

15:34And Aunty Hester walked out.

15:36She was terrified of him.

15:39And Aunty Hester wasn't going to say anything

15:43because she couldn't get away anywhere.

15:45Couldn't get away from him.

15:48He was just an evil, evil man.

15:52There was question about whether or not

15:55Arthur was responsible for Hester's death in 1978.

16:01Aunty Hester, she was crippled with arthritis.

16:05When she died, he said that she'd fallen and killed herself.

16:12The certificate of death had been issued over the phone

16:15by the doctor who never saw the body.

16:18Arthur then took the body and had it cremated straight away.

16:23So, whilst we're not able to prove

16:25that Arthur was responsible for murdering his wife,

16:27we were certainly looking at that as a possibility

16:30because the sister Charlotte moved in

16:32very shortly after who he was having an affair with.

16:37So, Brown married Charlotte and she moved in

16:41bringing her granddaughters into Brown's reach.

16:44The reality back in 1970

16:47is that a lot of those crimes just went unreported

16:50and a lot of those sexual offendings

16:53were actually swept under the carpet

16:55even within their own family.

16:58It's not talked about.

17:00I was sitting on the back steps

17:02and he just walked up behind me

17:03and I thought he was just putting his hands

17:05on my shoulders, you know,

17:06but then he just moved in

17:08and cupped my breasts

17:10and I just, oh, jeez.

17:13And I told my husband about it

17:14that he said, oh, he wouldn't do that.

17:16You're imagining it.

17:20Mum and Dad just said,

17:21God, he wouldn't do that.

17:23He's a grandfather, for goodness sakes.

17:27Nobody wanted to know.

17:31A few days after the murders,

17:33Arthur Brown made a disturbing suggestion.

17:36I was staying at Brown's at the time of the murder

17:39and he wanted to take Aunty Hester and my sister

17:44and I out to Ant Hill Creek

17:46to show us where the girls were found.

17:52That was odd, very odd.

17:55I mean, who would want to do that?

17:57Over the time, it was just like

18:00he was feeding people little bits of information

18:03to see what they would do with it,

18:05you know, just to see if someone would say anything.

18:07He'd tell the girls he abused

18:09that he could have murdered the Mackay sisters.

18:13By Brown saying that he could have killed those girls,

18:17I think, personally,

18:19he's also sending a clear message to them.

18:21If you talk about this,

18:23you could also be a victim.

18:28Thanks to Mim,

18:29we had hopes that the crimes

18:31that shocked the nation could finally be solved.

18:33We had strong new leads

18:36the original investigators didn't have.

18:40One of them was knowing

18:41what car Arthur Brown was driving back then.

18:44Ah, the Vauxhall.

18:50I wonder how many people

18:54that he took and molested in that car.

18:56That's what he used to do with the girls.

18:58He'd take them out somewhere

19:00and he always made the eldest girl

19:03sit in the front with him

19:04and he'd say,

19:06what granddad wants, granddad gets.

19:08Mim had told us

19:11that Arthur had a Vauxhall

19:13with an off-driver side blue door.

19:15Mim had told us

19:16that he'd taken the door

19:18off the vehicle

19:19and buried it in the backyard.

19:21He said to his daughter-in-law

19:23because she said to him,

19:25what are you taking your door

19:26off your car for granddad?

19:28He said,

19:29I don't want them coming around here

19:30accusing me.

19:31Another thing that Mim talked about

19:35with Brown was that he was meticulous,

19:37particularly when he was folding clothing.

19:40He was a very tidy person,

19:42almost obsessive compulsive.

19:45One thing that we identified at the scene

19:48was the clothing of the children

19:51was actually very neatly folded

19:53next to the bodies.

19:54The socks were neatly folded

19:57inside the shoes.

19:58But a lot of the information she provided

20:00was starting to stack up.

20:03It was helping us develop

20:05a disturbing profile

20:06of a man we believe

20:07had been in the presence

20:09of investigating police.

20:10The two little Mackay girls,

20:13they went to the Aikenvale State School

20:15and Brown was there.

20:17He used to work there.

20:19I can remember when

20:21he came home one day

20:23and he said,

20:24he said,

20:25those little girls

20:26are just prick teasers, you know.

20:28He said,

20:29they're going to get some man in trouble one day.

20:33And I just thought

20:34they're primary school children.

20:38What he termed as prick teasers.

20:40I mean,

20:41who makes that comment?

20:43That's not the comment of a normal person.

20:45During the reinvestigation in 1998,

20:57I went out to the crime scene

21:00to get a feel for the crime scene.

21:04The original road remained intact

21:06but completely unused behind a padlock gate.

21:09as luck would have it,

21:11that abandoned bit of road

21:13was exactly

21:14where the crime scene was.

21:24So essentially

21:25that crime scene

21:26has been preserved

21:27for 27 years.

21:42We were able to go

21:43to the exact location

21:46of where the bodies were.

21:48It was like

21:50It was like

21:51every hair on your body

21:53is standing

21:54to attention

21:55that you've just entered

21:57this preserved,

21:58incredibly preserved

21:59crime scene.

22:02It was an incredible experience.

22:04Something I'd never been through

22:05up to that point.

22:06Something I'll probably

22:07never experience again.

22:08The significance of

22:13this old crime scene

22:15is that Mim would tell us

22:17that a number

22:18of the step-grandchildren

22:20had been taken out

22:21to that same creek

22:23and they'd been abused sexually.

22:26So this is a location

22:28that's known to Brown

22:30and we have six sightings

22:32of Arthur's car

22:34at this scene.

22:36We're now able to confirm

22:38that yes,

22:39you would be able

22:40to actually see

22:41the vehicle

22:41from this particular location.

22:45We were tracking down

22:46witnesses who still

22:47had good recollections

22:48of Brown.

22:49A man who in just weeks

22:51had gone from being

22:52a retired elderly carpenter

22:54unknown to police

22:55to our main suspect.

22:5950% of our witnesses

23:00had already passed away.

23:02One thing we were

23:03fighting against

23:04was time.

23:05The witnesses were

23:07maybe in their 70s,

23:08maybe in their 80s

23:10and their memory

23:11may start to fade.

23:15A witness with a good memory

23:16was an Army veteran

23:17called Neil Lani

23:19who was running late

23:20for work that day.

23:22The driver of the vehicle

23:23in front of him

23:24was cutting him off

23:26and wouldn't let him pass.

23:27So he pulled up

23:28along the vehicle

23:29looked at the driver

23:30and saw the girls.

23:32He got a good look

23:33at the girls.

23:34Neither of them

23:35were distressed.

23:36Neither of them

23:37were upset.

23:38They weren't crying.

23:39They weren't yelling

23:40for help.

23:41They obviously

23:43in some form

23:46or other knew

23:47the person

23:48that was driving

23:49the car.

23:51Luckily,

23:52after all this time

23:53Neil Lani still

23:54had a crystal-clear

23:55recollection

23:56of the man

23:56behind the wheel.

23:57The driver

23:59of that vehicle

24:00had Mickey Mouse ears

24:02and that description

24:03is fitting

24:04of Arthur Brown.

24:05He has what appears

24:06to be Mickey Mouse ears.

24:11Two hours after

24:12Neil Lani's sighting

24:13of the girls

24:13in the blue car,

24:1490 kilometres away

24:16in the coastal town

24:17of Eyre,

24:18a blue car

24:19was spotted refuelling

24:20at a service station.

24:25Now,

24:26the woman

24:27at the service station

24:28she saw

24:30the man

24:31behind the wheel

24:32of a blue car

24:33with two little girls

24:34in the car

24:35who seemed quite upset.

24:36And when she got

24:37off the seat

24:38and said,

24:38are we there yet?

24:39The big girl

24:41turned to the driver

24:42and said,

24:42you promised

24:43to take us to mummy.

24:44When are you

24:45taking us to mummy?

24:46She said,

24:48the man

24:49behind the wheel

24:50was thin-faced.

24:51He had a lantern jaw,

24:53short hair

24:54and his ears

24:55stuck out a bit.

24:56Quite a distinctive

24:57looking head.

24:58This was by far

25:00the best clue

25:01regardless

25:02of the actual

25:03make of the car.

25:04The investigators

25:06didn't put out

25:07identicates.

25:08They didn't put out

25:09artists' impressions.

25:10The police of that era,

25:11I have to say,

25:12did not distinguish

25:13themselves.

25:14They jumped

25:15to conclusions.

25:16They played a hunch

25:17that bad man

25:18they're looking for

25:19was driving a Holder

25:20and they ignored

25:22evidence that

25:23it might have been

25:24another sort of car.

25:27That buggered

25:28the whole investigation

25:29for close to 30 years.

25:41After a year or two

25:42of the murders,

25:44two young men

25:45both heard

25:46strange confessions

25:47from Arthur Brown

25:48that implicate him

25:50in these murders.

25:51The first one

25:53is a young fellow

25:5419 years old

25:55he's got a job

25:56in Charters Towers.

25:57He's having a drink

25:58after work

25:59in a pub there

26:00and in comes this

26:01thin, neat looking

26:02older man.

26:03And this fellow

26:05sits down

26:06and rolls a smoke

26:07and starts talking.

26:08Arthur Brown

26:10brings up

26:11the subject

26:12of the murdered

26:13girls

26:14and he said

26:15the police are looking

26:16for the wrong car.

26:18That young fellow

26:19on the ball

26:20he went and saw

26:21a local policeman

26:22and said,

26:23guess what,

26:24I've been having a drink

26:25with this bloke

26:26and he said he,

26:27that he was involved

26:28in the murder.

26:29Two days later

26:30he sees Arthur Brown

26:31in the same pub

26:32and Brown's quite cocky.

26:33And he said,

26:34oh, the police came

26:35about, you know,

26:36the Mackay thing,

26:37but nothing to do

26:38with me, no problem.

26:39And the police

26:40had been to see

26:41Arthur Brown

26:42and accepted

26:43whatever he told

26:44them at face value

26:45and they did not

26:46go on with it.

26:56Arthur was

26:57a maintenance

26:58carpenter

26:59with the

27:00Queensland Government.

27:02There was

27:03another young man,

27:04he had worked

27:05with Arthur Brown

27:06as assistant

27:07and he used

27:08to talk to him

27:09and they did lunch

27:10together.

27:11And at some point

27:12Brown said,

27:13police have got it

27:14wrong.

27:15They're looking

27:16for the wrong car.

27:17And he said,

27:18I killed those girls,

27:19which shocked

27:21the young bloke,

27:22but he thought,

27:23you know,

27:24it can't be right.

27:25But he never

27:26forgot it.

27:27He never forgot it.

27:28He never forgot it.

27:34So after conducting

27:45the cold case investigation,

27:46after talking to relatives,

27:48after talking to

27:49other new witnesses,

27:51a picture started

27:52to develop around Brown.

27:54And we believe

27:55Brown was responsible.

27:57However,

27:58in this case,

27:59there was no

28:00smoking gun.

28:10The cold case investigation

28:11had been running

28:12for months.

28:14But all the evidence

28:15we had against

28:16Arthur Brown

28:17was circumstantial.

28:19There's nothing

28:20in the information

28:21that Min provided

28:22that directly told us

28:24that Arthur was

28:25the killer.

28:26Except for bits

28:28and pieces of information

28:29in relation to

28:30Arthur bragging about

28:32he could have killed

28:33those girls.

28:34We knew almost

28:36everything there was

28:37to know about Brown

28:38and what had occurred

28:40at Lough Street,

28:41Townsville.

28:42His pure evil

28:43activities

28:44and the possibility

28:45he may have killed

28:46his first wife,

28:47Hester,

28:48to marry her sister,

28:49Charlotte.

28:53Charlotte was a

28:54little tiny woman.

28:56Her relatives

28:57noticed that

28:58she used to wear

28:59young girls'

29:01pyjamas to bed,

29:02like shorty pyjamas

29:03like a ten-year-old

29:04might wear.

29:05And she was a,

29:08you know,

29:09middle-aged woman.

29:10And they said,

29:11why do you,

29:12Aunty Charlotte,

29:13you know,

29:14why do you wear

29:15those kids' pyjamas

29:16to bed?

29:17And Arthur jumped in

29:18and said,

29:19because she's

29:20my little girl.

29:21My little girl.

29:23creepy old bastard.

29:24Well, he was a carpenter

29:34and he used to go to

29:36schools,

29:37the prisons,

29:38any government buildings.

29:40He worked at the

29:42Aikenvale School

29:43and he said they all

29:45called him Uncle Art.

29:46And I thought,

29:47well, that sounds like it.

29:48That was another piece of information

29:52that Min provided

29:53that made sense to us.

29:55That term is significant

29:57because Uncle suggests

29:59a familiarity,

30:00a trust.

30:01The fact that the driver

30:03was able to entice the girls

30:06into the car

30:07without dragging them,

30:08we're not talking about

30:09a snatch-and-grab abduction,

30:11is suggestive that the girls

30:14know him.

30:15It corroborates how the girls

30:18may have been in that vehicle

30:20in the first place.

30:22Because of the job he had,

30:24a unique job really,

30:26he kept his tools

30:28and his paint brushes

30:29and all the rest of it

30:30in an annex to the local

30:32courthouse in Townsville.

30:33He knew the JPs.

30:36He knew the local magistrate.

30:38He'd be fixing up their desk

30:40or the window

30:42or whatever it was.

30:43They all knew him.

30:44Hello, Brownie.

30:45G'day, boss.

30:46He knew the local police.

30:47Same thing.

30:48He'd do maintenance

30:49at the police station.

30:50And he knew the police

30:52from the bottom

30:53to the top

30:54to the inspector.

30:55He had the run of the place.

30:57He was invisible

30:58because he was there

30:59all the time.

31:00Because he was part

31:01of the furniture.

31:02I didn't know him personally,

31:03but he used to work

31:04for the Public Works Department

31:06at the old police station

31:08in town there.

31:09And being old,

31:10it was always getting repaired.

31:11And he used to come there

31:13and, you know,

31:14just say,

31:15g'day, how are you going?

31:16But the children

31:18at the Cutharinga Children's Home,

31:21my sister was working there

31:24at the time,

31:25and he drove past

31:27and the kids said,

31:30oh, look at that old rock spider.

31:33There goes that old rock spider,

31:34the rock spider.

31:35And she said,

31:36what do you mean?

31:37And they explained to her

31:38what a rock spider is.

31:39A pedophile.

31:41These kids knew what he was.

31:44And they knew all about rock spiders.

31:46And he must have done stuff there

31:48that alerted them to his proclivities.

31:51Something that no one else had picked up.

31:54The kids had.

31:56He was old now,

31:58as were the memories

31:59of our witnesses,

32:00which we knew

32:02would be an issue in court.

32:04When you're dealing with

32:05a 30-year,

32:06a cold case investigation,

32:08it's an easy thing

32:09to criticise memory.

32:11We believe now

32:12we've exhausted all inquiries

32:14and we believe we have

32:15as good a brief

32:16as we're going to have

32:17against Arthur Stanley Brown.

32:19By the 3rd of December 1998,

32:22we were actually ready

32:23to move on executing

32:24a search warrant

32:25on Arthur Stanley Brown

32:26at his home address.

32:27Brisbane Homicide Squad

32:28detectives raided

32:29the man's house

32:30in the Townsville

32:31suburb of Ross Lee

32:32this morning.

32:33The army was called in

32:34to search the yard and house.

32:36We were dealing

32:37with an 86-year-old suspect.

32:39So when Arthur answered the door,

32:41it was almost like

32:42the man's house

32:43and the man's house

32:44was called in

32:45to search the yard

32:46and house.

32:47We were dealing

32:48and it was almost like

32:50standing in front

32:51of your grandfather.

32:52He didn't seem surprised

32:54at all when we said

32:55we were investigating

32:56the Mackay sister murders

32:57and that we were

32:58from the homicide unit.

32:59And he just acknowledged

33:01and nodded

33:02and invited us in.

33:09We didn't blink an eyelid.

33:11It was almost like

33:12he's acknowledged that.

33:14It's caught up with him.

33:16And Charlotte said something like,

33:19what's going on?

33:20You know,

33:21what have you done?

33:22And he said,

33:23don't worry love.

33:25He said,

33:26I've done some awful things

33:27and now I've got to pay for it.

33:29He did not want to talk to police

33:32at all about any of

33:34Mackay's sister related matters.

33:36But when we asked what cars he'd owned,

33:39he quickly reeled off a long list.

33:42Except he missed one vehicle.

33:45He missed the Vauxhall Victor.

33:48And it wasn't until his wife, Charlotte,

33:51corrected him and said,

33:52well hold on,

33:53you had the Vauxhall Victor.

33:55And he says,

33:56oh right.

33:57Brown completely avoided talking to us

34:00about that vehicle.

34:01We went looking for the secret room

34:04where Brown took his victims.

34:06That room still existed with a lock

34:10on the outside and the inside of the door

34:13as the girls had said.

34:15What was in the room at that particular time were,

34:22it was Vaseline,

34:26it was pictures of the grandchildren.

34:30Everything consistent with the stories

34:33of those girls being raped and sexually abused.

34:37As we were leaving,

34:39we said, well Arthur,

34:40obviously you're under arrest

34:41and you're coming with us.

34:43And Charlotte asked his wife,

34:45she said,

34:46will you be coming home?

34:47And he said,

34:48I don't think so.

34:50After all this time,

34:51an 86 year old Townsville man

34:53has been charged with their murders.

34:55The former school worker

34:56will celebrate his 87th birthday

34:58on Thursday,

34:59defending the charges.

35:04Arthur Brown was charged with

35:06two counts of murder

35:07and 43 child sex charges.

35:10We knew we had a strong case,

35:12albeit circumstantial.

35:13But ultimately,

35:16it was up to a jury

35:18to convict him.

35:19The Mackay family

35:30have waited almost 30 years

35:31to find out what happened

35:32to the two schoolgirls.

35:33It's expected that

35:34by the end of the week,

35:35they'll at least know

35:36whether the accused

35:37will stand trial

35:38for the girls' murder.

35:39that was determined too prejudicial,

35:58to run in the trial.

36:00So by the time

36:02we got to the Supreme Court,

36:05the jury are looking at

36:07an absolute clean skin

36:09of a person being accused

36:11of murdering two children.

36:13Nobody knew

36:14that Arthur Stanley Brown

36:15was a child abuser

36:17capable of rape.

36:19So the trial

36:30for Arthur Stanley Brown

36:32occurred on the 18th of October,

36:331999.

36:34Is your husband innocent,

36:45Mr Brown?

36:46Yes, he is.

36:47So you clearly believe

36:48your husband is innocent?

36:49Yes, I do.

36:50Are you confident

36:51the jury will find that way?

36:52Oh, shut up.

36:55We're left with

36:56half of the witnesses

36:57from the investigation.

36:59We're really against the clock

37:01at this point in time.

37:03So what the defence

37:05had to play with

37:06was discrediting

37:07our investigation,

37:08discrediting the memory

37:10of our witnesses.

37:11The justice

37:12hadn't been served

37:13according to them

37:14because the killer

37:15had never been found.

37:17The witnesses

37:18were all very staunch.

37:19The memories

37:20of those occurrences

37:22for each one

37:23of the witnesses

37:24had remained with them

37:25quite strongly

37:26because it was

37:27a traumatic event.

37:28They lived with the fact

37:30that they were the last

37:31person potentially

37:32to see the Mackay sisters alive.

37:34You sit back later

37:35and you criticise yourself

37:37and say,

37:38you know,

37:39how come I didn't help

37:40them girls?

37:41And for me,

37:42over the years

37:43it becomes very hard

37:44because...

37:49There was a lot of

37:50confrontation

37:51during the course

37:52of this trial

37:53by the defence

37:54and the witnesses.

37:55and the witnesses.

37:56And at one stage,

37:57one of our witnesses,

37:58Neil Lunny,

37:59ended up standing up

38:00screaming at

38:01the defence lawyer.

38:02And the defence lawyer

38:03was screaming back,

38:04this is how it all started.

38:05He accused myself

38:07and Dave

38:08of fabricating evidence.

38:12During the trial,

38:13Brown did not take the stand.

38:16and what we saw in court

38:19was this old man,

38:20he was making a bit of a show

38:21of not following

38:22the procedure.

38:23Oh, what, you know,

38:24what's going on?

38:25And...

38:34During the trial,

38:35we sort of got the feeling

38:37that the jury were,

38:38were actually taking

38:39all the information in

38:40and they were connecting

38:41the dots themselves.

38:44Are you deaf?

38:45You wouldn't like

38:46to say anything

38:47before you go to the jail?

38:48No, he wasn't.

38:49So we were quite confident

38:50that Brown was going

38:51to be convicted

38:52of the murder of the girls.

39:00Unfortunately,

39:01that wasn't the case.

39:04We had a hung jury.

39:06There was only one person

39:11in the jury

39:12that was reluctant

39:14to find Brown guilty

39:15and the information

39:17we were told

39:19was that this person

39:21believed that Arthur

39:22looked too much

39:23like his grandfather.

39:31We shouted.

39:32We shouted.

39:33We, uh,

39:34fought it hard to believe.

39:36They would have been

39:38devastated.

39:40They lose two kids.

39:42Oh,

39:43it broke my heart.

39:45It just broke my heart.

39:47I suppose they're past now.

39:50The Mackay's.

39:53But, yeah.

39:55Oh.

39:58Is there anything

39:59you'd like to say

40:00to the Mackay family,

40:01Mr Brown?

40:03Mrs Brown,

40:04Is there anything

40:05you'd like to say

40:06to the Mackay family?

40:09Has this made it harder

40:10or easier for you,

40:11Mr Brown?

40:15Are you sure there's nothing

40:16you'd like to tell us?

40:18Get along.

40:19Oh, no.

40:20I'm sorry,

40:21what was that,

40:22Mrs Brown?

40:23Absolutely.

40:32The defence played an effective

40:33stay out of jail card

40:34for Brown.

40:36They claimed he was suffering

40:37from dementia.

40:38Hello.

40:39Arthur.

40:40Arthur.

40:42Arthur.

40:43Yeah?

40:44Well, I'm here.

40:46The Queensland Director of Public

40:48Prosecutions eventually agreed.

40:50It wasn't in the public interest

40:52to put Brown through another trial.

40:57It's my view that he played the game,

40:59that he realised that dementia

41:02would be his friend and might prevent

41:05him standing trial and that he cultivated

41:08perhaps the vaguenesses that you get

41:11in your 80s.

41:12That was B.S.

41:16He didn't have Alzheimer's.

41:18He was still switched on.

41:22Unfortunately for us,

41:23that's the system.

41:26Arthur died a year later.

41:30Arthur wasn't convicted of anything.

41:34Arthur died a free man.

41:38He was a terrible person.

41:42I just don't know how he got away

41:46with it for that long.

41:52Oh, God.

41:54It's just terrible.

42:01It was a better pill to swallow

42:02for the Mackays,

42:06for all of the victims of Arthur,

42:09or the family,

42:11who had managed to tell their story.

42:19Something Bill said,

42:20it's not about vengeance.

42:22It's about justice.

42:26And unfortunately,

42:27we just didn't quite get that,

42:29get to that level of justice.

42:30One thing the trial did determine,

42:36and one thing that we are convinced of,

42:38is that Arthur Stanley Brown is responsible

42:41for the murders of the Mackay sisters.

42:44Arthur Stanley Brown is responsible

42:46for heinous acts of rape and sexual abuse

42:50against his own family.

42:52We had our man.

42:53Arthur Stanley Brown was our killer.

43:02But other questions remained.

43:04Had Arthur Brown murdered other children?

43:06Was he a serial killer?

43:18This is the great mystery of Arthur Brown.

43:20Is he the best suspect

43:23for one of the biggest unsolved disappearances

43:28in Australian history?

43:33Adelaide, city of churches,

43:35city of bizarre crimes.

43:37There's a football game at the Adelaide Oval.

43:50Two girls, one older one, Joanne Ratcliffe,

43:53and one little one, Kirstie Gordon.

43:56Joanne was taking little Kirstie to the lavatory

43:59at three quarter time during this big game.

44:03They disappear.

44:04The disappearance of 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe

44:07and four-year-old Kirstie Gordon shocked Australia.

44:13Various people saw something.

44:16There was a woman, Sue Laurie.

44:19In 1973, she was 14.

44:22And she saw a middle-aged man,

44:26thin man, thin-faced man, high cheekbones,

44:29broad-brimmed hat.

44:31And she assumed it was a grandfather

44:33with a recalcitrant grandchild

44:35because he's carrying one little girl

44:37who's struggling and he's gripping her.

44:40And the other little one was running along

44:42beside him, punching him

44:43and saying, put her down, put her down.

44:46On the back, hitting him and saying,

44:48let her go, let her go.

44:49Everything about the person she saw, tellies with Arthur Brown.

45:06Arthur used to travel interstate for his holidays.

45:09And somebody remembered that he said to them that he'd seen the Festival Theatre almost finished when he'd been in Adelaide.

45:19This tellies perfectly with the timing of the disappearance of Joanne and Kirstie,

45:25who have never been found.

45:27Who have never been found.

45:28You've been able to find out on the back.

45:29And today, we'll wait for it.

45:30A lot of the Auram,

45:31help you find it.

45:33Take your home.

45:35And take your home.

45:37You know, a few days later,

45:39the family's robogen.

45:40You can't find it.

45:41The family's robogen.

45:42The family's robogen.

45:43You're not alone.

45:44But my family's robogen.

45:46All that we can find,

45:47they're not alone.

45:48And we're not alone.

45:49It's coming to you.

45:50The family's robogen.

45:51And the family's robogen.

45:52And each part is coming to you.

45:53I'm going to another family.

45:55And love.

45:56Sex killers are driven by a compulsion. Some of them are very neat and tidy, sort of psychopathically

46:08tidy and careful. Arthur Brown was one of those. He didn't just come out of the blue

46:15as a middle-aged man and start offending. He built up to murder as a way to probably

46:23the ultimate thriller. And that once he got the taste for it, that he would have continued

46:28to do it. So he would have committed sex offences for probably 50 years. He was born in 1912.

46:35So he was in his 20s during the Great Depression, pre-World War II. So he could have been offending

46:44from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, right up until he was too feeble to do anything.

46:53There were other cases in Northern Queensland, which do roughly fit the Arthur Brown mould.

47:02The case of Marilyn Wallman, March 1972, which is less than, less than two years after the Mackay

47:11sisters. She gets on a bike and rides through cane fields towards school. Her brother's coming along,

47:20within minutes, he finds her bike with the wheels still spinning, and she's gone. Clearly abducted.

47:31Arthur had extended family out in Mackay. We know he was in the area of Imeo around about this time.

47:38In fact, the last known vehicle sighting near when Marilyn went missing,

47:43was a voxel, described as a blue voxel. It's a possibility. When that was investigated,

47:50nobody had heard of Arthur Stanley Brown.

47:54Marilyn Wallman's body was never found. And at the time, I thought that her murder was certainly

48:00one brown could have been responsible for.

48:08Brendan Rook and Dave Hickey and their team, they were just absolutely marvellous.

48:15If you gave them a bit of info, they were onto it like a seagull onto a sick prawn.

48:20They were fierce. They were just like bull terriers. They did a magic job. And the good thing about it was,

48:29they still had time to talk to us. When you start getting a bit nervy about stuff, they were just brilliant.

48:46They were just brilliant.

49:06Whilst we didn't get a conviction, the parents of Judith and Susan Mackay got the opportunity

49:14to look their daughter's killer in the eye. And I think that's important.

49:24We're not looking at anyone else in connection with these murders. This case is closed.

49:40The

49:53is

49:58is

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