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Deborah Lamb |
On February 12, 1977 they committed their fourth murder in a week. In the early hours of Sunday morning Miller and Worrell were cruising in the vicinity of the pinball arcades at the City Bowl and picked up 20-year-old hitchhiker Deborah Lamb. Worrell suggested that they could take her to Port Gawler and the girl allegedly accepted the ride. Once they reached the beach at Port Gawler, Miller left them alone and went for a walk in the scrub. When he returned to the car, Worrell was standing in front of it, filling in a hole in the sand by pushing sand into it with his feet. The girl was nowhere to be seen.
At Miller's trial, Dr C. H. Manock, the Director of Forensic Pathology at the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, said it was possible that Deborah Lamb had been alive when placed in the grave.
"The sand and shellgrit would have formed an obstruction to the airway and prevented air from entering the air passages," he said. He added that it was impossible to say this positively because of the advanced state of decomposition of soft tissue when the body was found.
Dr Manock saw a pair of pantyhose found wrapped seven times around the mouth and jaw of Deborah Lamb's remains that could have caused death by asphyxia. If he chose to, Miller could have saved all of the victims' lives, but he said that he was terrified that Worrell would kill him if he did. Miller maintained that he did not see Deborah's body in the grave. But later he would lead police to it.
Detective Sergeant Lawrie said that Miller had said towards the end of the interrogation: "I know it might sound crazy after all this. I don't hold to murder. I really believe in the death penalty. An eye-for-an-eye. Believe me, I wanted no part of this, it was like a nightmare. Each time we picked up one of those girls, I had no idea of his intentions."