|
Natasha Ryan |
But that was not to be the end of it. Police had very good reasons to believe that Fraser had also murdered another schoolgirl, Natasha Ryan, and three women, Julie Turner, Bev Leggo and Sylvia Benedetti, who had all gone missing in Rockhampton between September 1998 and April 1999.
Natasha Ryan, 14, had disappeared on September 2, 1998, while on her way to a north Rockhampton school in the same area where Keyra Steinhardt was killed.
Julie Dawn Turner, 39, had worked with Fraser for a couple of months in 1998 at the Rockhampton abattoirs. On December 28, 1998, Julie left Rockhampton's Airport Liberty Nightclub in the early hours of the morning in an intoxicated state. Apparently broke, she had asked around for enough money to get a cab home and when none was forthcoming she started walking. From there she disappeared. Julie had previously told friends that she was moving in with a guy named "Lenny," but hadn't elaborated further.
Beverly Doreen Leggo, 36, met Fraser at a Mount Morgan hostel where he was staying in 1997. Ms. Leggo was last seen on 1 March 1999, at a bank in the CBD near the East Street Mall.
Sylvia Maria Benedetti, 19, disappeared on April 17, 1999. Six days later while police were searching for the body of Keyra Steinhardt, who had disappeared the day before, they were led to the derelict Queensland Hotel by its wreckers who had made a horrific discovery. In room 13 the carpet was soggy with blood and there was blood sprayed all over the ceiling and walls. There were bone fragments in the carpet. In a downstairs freezer police found a pair on women's shoes submerged in filthy water.
A forensic examination revealed that the blood was human and given the spate of missing women in recent months, police had good reason to believe the blood to be that of Sylvia Benedetti. By now they also believed that there was the distinct possibility that there was a serial killer in their midst.
The attack had been so savage that the victim had lost about four liters of blood, which was about as much as a woman the size of Sylvia Benedetti would have in her entire body. Police believed that Sylvia Benedetti was known to Fraser and was seen with him on the night before she disappeared. DNA tests of blood found in the trunk of Fraser's car matched that of the blood found in the room.