Nicole Patterson

Despise the mountain of circumstantial evidence, Dupas denied any knowledge of Patterson's death, saying only that the police must have planted the evidence on him in order to get a conviction. Peter Dupas was charged with the murder of Nicole Patterson and remanded in custody for trial.

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To her family and friends and anyone who had even been remotely in touch with her throughout her life, Nicole Patterson's death was cruel and pointless. Nicole didn't have an enemy in the world. Of all of the things that an attractive, athletic and intelligent young woman could have done with her life, she chose psychotherapy and dedicated much her time helping young people with drug problems.

In her spare time Nicole worked as a youth counselor at the Ardoch Centre, an organization which endeavors to assist homeless or disadvantaged young people. She also assisted in activities associated with the Australia Drug Foundation.

Nicole's life was her work, her partner of 20 months, Richard Smith, and her beloved dog, Bella, which she had rescued from an animal shelter. Her sister Kylie said of Nicole, "She was the most beautiful person I've known and she had a lot of special gifts that not many people have."

Early in 1999, Nicole decided to extend her practice and set up the front bedroom of her home as a consulting room and advertised for clients in the local papers.

Putting the pieces together, investigators believed that the man calling himself "Malcolm" made the first of 15 phone calls to her on March 3 and eventually made an appointment for 9 a.m. April 19 on the pretext that he wanted to consult her about his chronic gambling problem.

Police believed that after Dupas arrived at 9 a.m., he was ushered into the consulting room and attacked Nicole as she was making coffee for them both. Dupas set upon her, stabbing her viciously and repeatedly with a knife he had brought with him. But Nicole put up strong resistance, as was indicated by the shouting heard by the neighbors and the cuts to her hands.

Once he had murdered Nicole, Dupas set about fastidiously cleaning the room up and removing any clues that may have led to him. Then he took his souvenirs — Nicole's purse and her body parts. But, fortunately for investigators, he missed the diary that led them straight to his door.

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