The Snowtown murders

The Snowtown murders

One of Australia's most notorious murder cases - known as the Snowtown murders, or the 'bodies in barrels' case - is back in the news with the release on parole of the youngest man involved. The case shocked the nation and made a small South Australian town famous for all the wrong reasons. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll get you across:

• What happened

• And the concerns raised over releasing a convicted serial killer back into society

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Larissa Huntington

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Squiz the Shortcut

Remind me where Snowtown is…
It’s not where the name suggests - there's no alpine scenery, no snowy trees, and no snow. It's a sleepy farming community on a rural highway about 150kms north of Adelaide - a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of town. But it’s become a destination for true crime tourists, and they’re mainly interested in one building there…

Which one?
The old bank building - a plain brick building on the town's main street. And they’re interested because that’s where the bodies of 8 of the 11 murder victims were discovered in 1999, hidden in 6 plastic barrels full of hydrochloric acid, inside an old vault.

How did police end up there?
They'd been working on a number of unexplained disappearances across Adelaide, and detectives had noticed suspicious welfare claims - dole payments, disability pensions and other social security payments - linked to the missing people. That investigation was known as Taskforce Chart and it led them to the town.

Who was missing?
One of the people was a woman named Elizabeth Haydon, who disappeared from Adelaide's northern suburbs in late 1998. Police had her husband Mark Haydon under surveillance, and then a witness came forward - she'd seen a man outside one of the suspects' houses forcing garbage bags into the back of an old Toyota LandCruiser, stacked floor to roof.

Did they find the car?
Not straight away… By the time police heard about it, the 4WD was gone, and they spent the next 6 months looking for it. Then it turned up in the driveway of a house in Snowtown - which is what brought detectives to town on 20 May in 1999. They'd come to search the house and seize the car, but they were soon told about some barrels emitting a putrid smell that had been moved to the old bank across the road. It wasn’t used as a bank anymore - it was being rented out.

Who was renting it?
Mark Haydon, along with a friend of his named John Bunting. Within 24 hours of finding the bodies, police had charged Bunting, Haydon and another man, Robert Wagner, with murder. About a fortnight later, they also charged Bunting's stepson James Vlassakis, who was 19yo at the time.

What happened to them all?
More bodies were subsequently found across Adelaide's north, and all up, 12 deaths were linked to the case. Bunting was convicted of 11 of them, with the jury unable to reach a verdict on the 12th. Wagner was found responsible for 10 deaths - he pleaded guilty to 3, and a jury convicted him of another 7. Haydon was initially charged with 2 counts of murder, but they were eventually dropped when he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

And Vlassakis?
He became the Crown's key witness after pleading guilty to 4 of the killings, and his testimony was key to making sure Bunting and Wagner will stay locked up for life without parole.

So, who were these men?
Bunting and Wagner first met as neighbours living in public housing in the northern Adelaide suburb of Salisbury North. Haydon’s wife Elizabeth and Bunting’s partner Jodie Elliott were sisters and he also lived nearby. Police fairly quickly identified Bunting as the ringleader; psychological profiles describe him as “highly manipulative”, and someone who commanded authority over the people around him. 

Including his stepson?
Yes… Vlassakis told police he viewed Bunting as a father figure and looked up to him - and also that he was scared that if he refused to take part in the murders, he'd be killed next.

What was their motive for committing the murders?
According to Vlassakis, Bunting held a certain world view, and anyone who didn't fit it was a “waste”. He said Bunting looked down on drug users and disabled people, and thought he was doing society a moral service by cleansing it - as he put it - of people he labelled as paedophiles, gays or freeloaders. He also had a wall in his home containing names written on post-it notes of people he'd deemed to be paedophiles - he called it the ‘wall of spiders’, and some of those names became his victims. 

Was there a financial motive too?
Yes… In many cases, they claimed the victims' Centrelink payments. But in handing down life sentences to Bunting and Wagner after an 11-month murder trial, Justice Brian Martin said: “It is no exaggeration to say that, by 1999, you were in the business of killing for pleasure.” That was after the court heard evidence they had tortured a number of victims to get their PINs to access their bank accounts, and joked and laughed about what they were doing.

Who were the victims?
They included 19yo transgender woman Michelle (Michael) Gardiner who lived in the area; Wagner’s 42yo former partner Vanessa (also known as Barry) Lane, and a friend of theirs who used drugs named Gavin Porter who Bunting saw as “disposable”. They also murdered a neighbour named Gary O’Dwyer who was a 29yo invalid pensioner with a limp.

And some were family?
Yes… Vlassakis’s 21yo half-brother Troy Youde was next; Bunting’s partner Jodie Elliott’s 18yo son Fred Brooks was labelled a paedophile by Bunting without evidence and tortured and killed. They killed Mark Haydon’s 37yo wife Elizabeth (the sister of Elliott, and Brooks’ aunt), and Vlassakis’ 24yo stepbrother David Johnson, who Bunting thought of as a ‘yuppie’. Those were the 8 victims whose remains were found in the barrels. 

What about the other victims?
As we mentioned earlier, there were more deaths connected to the Snowtown case. The remains of 26yo disability pensioner Ray Davies and 47yo Suzanne Allen - she was his landlord and also one of Bunting’s former partners, were found buried in the backyard of Bunting’s former home. And the body of 18yo schizophrenic boy Thomas Trevilyan had been found hanging from a tree in November 1997 which was also connected - he’s thought to have helped with the murder of Barry Lane. The man thought to be Bunting’s first victim was 20yo Clinton Trezise. His remains were found buried in a shallow grave in Lower Light north of Adelaide.

Why was the alarm raised after Elizabeth Haydon?
Her brother reported her missing after the family was told by the killers she'd left town with another man - which they didn't believe. Added to the other disappearances, it kicked off the year-long investigation that culminated in Snowtown, where Bunting and Haydon had purposely rented the bank building in order to hide the barrels.

And now Snowtown is back in the news…
It is… That’s because Vlassakis - who’s now in his mid-40s - has been approved for release on parole after 27 years in jail. At the end of Bunting and Wagner’s trial, Vlassakis expressed remorse for taking part in the 4 murders he pleaded guilty to, and in approving him for parole last year, the South Australian Parole Board said he remains remorseful and has been an "exemplary" prisoner.

Why has it taken until now?
Because the South Oz State Government launched a legal challenge. But following a review, the original decision was upheld this week after the Parole Administrative Review Commissioner, David Lovell KC, found the Attorney-General had failed to establish enough grounds to overturn it.

Is he subject to conditions?
He will be - they're still being worked out, but they’ll include random drug and alcohol testing. Other than that, he'll be under standard conditions including a curfew and reporting to a corrections officer weekly. As a life-sentence prisoner, he'll be permanently under those conditions - and if he fails a drug or alcohol test, the Parole Board says it's quite likely he'll go back to prison.

Is he walking straight out the gate?
No… He'll spend the next year in a pre-release centre where the Parole Board will monitor his progress and make more decisions about where he can live, where he can go, work, and who he can talk to.

What was the response from the victims' families?
It's been a distressing time for them, according to the Commissioner for Victims' Rights Sarah Quick. She said that even though they knew it was possible he’d be approved for parole, it still resulted in “anxiety and grief”.

Will it be possible for the other men?
As we mentioned, Bunting and Wagner are locked up for life, but Haydon was released into the community back in 2024 after serving a 25-year sentence for assisting an offender. It’s believed to be the longest sentence for that offence ever handed down in South Oz.

And what of Snowtown?
The case has had a huge impact on the community - many locals are on record saying they were shocked and sickened by the discovery of the bodies in barrels in their town. They considered changing the name to Rosetown at one point, but residents were divided - some wanted a fresh start for the town, while others still feel connected to its history - it dates back to 1878 and is named after Thomas Snow, the assistant to the South Oz Governor of the day. They say they don’t want that history lost because of the actions of a few bad men.

Onto our Recommendations

Watching: There's a movie about the case and - much to the town's chagrin - it's called Snowtown. While it divided critics, it won several Australian film awards. It's by director Justin Kurzel, who's also behind Nitram about the Port Arthur massacre, and it's said to be a powerful, unsettling look at the darkest depths of humanity. You can stream it on Stan, or rent it on Apple TV.

Listening: To this episode of the ABC’s The Case Of podcast about the release of James Vlassakis and why the South Oz State Government tried to block it.

Reading:  You can read more about the victims and their link to the killers in this article from news.com.au

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