The "Family" Murders

Committal and Dismay

Bevan Von Einem

If the parents of the missing children were holding their breathes in the hope that Von Einem was going to admit guilt and tell police where their remains were, then they were sadly mistaken. Von Einem vigorously denied any involvement in the abductions of the children and lashed out at Mr. B claiming that Mr. B was merely out for a portion of the $250,000 reward on offer.

Mark Langley, 18

But the circumstantial evidence against him appeared to be overwhelming. After two months of hearings, on May 11, 1990, Bevan Spencer Von Einem was committed to stand trial in the South Australian Supreme Court on charges of having murdered Alan Barnes and Mark Langley.

Immediately Von Einem's defence council lodged an interjection to have the trial put on permanent stay of proceedings due to the fact that no matter what, their client could not possibly get a fair hearing due to the amount of public animosity toward him and the over-exposure of the committal hearing in the newspapers.

It didn't work. The trial judge, Justice Duggan chose to throw it out. But there were other matters about the forthcoming trial that worried His Honour. At a pre-trial hearing Justice Duggan ruled the "similar fact evidence," so successfully used in the committal hearing by the Crown prosecutor, as inadmissible. This ruled the evidence presented at the committal all but useless.

The Crown tried different tactics. It would present two separate trials for the murders of Barnes and Langley. But a couple of days later the Crown withdrew the murder charge against Langley considering that they could build a stronger case by trying Von Einem on the Barnes murder alone, the case for which they had the strongest evidence.

Then came the killer blow. After lengthy consideration, Justice Duggan ruled that evidence from the Von Einem trial and conviction for the murder of Richard Kelvin was disallowed. Justice Duggan also ruled inadmissible any evidence about Von Einem's alleged involvement with hitchhikers and his purported associates.

The Crown case was in tatters and if it went to court without their evidence the Crown didn't have a prayer of gaining a conviction. To their disgust, on 1 February, 1991, the Crown had no choice but enter a nolle prosequi (unwilling to pursue) on the second charge of the murder of Alan Barnes.

To the detectives who had worked tirelessly on the case for years it was a bitter pill to swallow. To the parents of Alan Barnes and the other young men who were so inhumanely violated and died such ghastly deaths at the hands of suspected respectable citizens it meant that their nightmare of wondering would go on.

And to many Australians, there is little doubt in their minds that "the Family" of depraved and murderous pedophiles did, and possibly still does, exist in South Australia.

They also believe that there are more victims as yet unaccounted for. Transient hitchhikers from other states and young tourists perhaps. And those same believers are also convinced that the tall, blond, well-groomed accountant with the aristocratic name, Bevan Spencer Von Einem, knows all of the answers of where the bodies are buried and who the guilty parties are.

But while he rots in Yatala Prison he is keeping his dark secrets to himself.