Casefile True Crime - Case 163: Joanne Ratcliffe & Kirste Gordon

Episode Date: November 28, 2020

On August 25 1973, 12,000 South Australian National Football League spectators packed into Adelaide Oval to watch the North Adelaide Roosters take on the Norwood Redlegs. During the game’s third and penultimate quarter, 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe was given permission by her parents to escort 4-year-old Kirste Gordon to the toilet. But the girls never returned. --- Casefile would like to give a special thanks to Suzie Ratcliffe for her assistance with this episode Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Elsha McGill Creative Director: Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-163-joanne-ratcliffe-kirste-gordon

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. This episode involves crimes against children. It won't be suitable for all listeners. Compared to the five-level multi-million dollar stadium it is today, in the 1970s Adelaide Oval was a relatively small and quaint sporting ground.

The oval itself was framed by a white picket fence and a manually operated heritage scoreboard that kept tally of match progress. Cricket and Australian rules football were primarily played there, with crowd numbers reaching over 60,000 during momentous games or grand finals. The ground's humble size ensured that it always felt packed and busy. Spectators were mostly crammed shoulder to shoulder in the standing areas around the boundary line. Those who attended big games were willing to endure anything to keep their place in

the crowd. If they were to leave their position for any reason, someone else would step forward and claim it. Therefore, many spectators would arrive early, secure their spot, and remain there until the final siren blew. Others opted to sit along the timber bench seating within the vintage grandstands on the western side of the oval. On the afternoon of Saturday, August 25, 1973, 13-year-old Anthony Kilmarten was working

as a mobile concession vandor at Adelaide Oval. Around him, 12,000 spectators were eagerly watching a South Australian national football league match between the North Adelaide Roosters and the Norwood Red Legs. During the game's third and penultimate quarter, Anthony was in the Sir Edwin Smithgrance stand when two young girls emerged from the crowd and bounded down the steps towards ground level. One was a preteen, while the younger of the pair looked barely five years old. Anthony stepped aside to let them pass.

He then moved on to the neighbouring John Creswell grandstand. While passing through the concourse directly underneath the stand, Anthony spotted the two girls again. They were being followed by a man wearing eyeglasses and a wide brimmed to Cobra-style hat. Once he caught up to the girls, he snatched the younger one and carried her towards the oval's southern gate. The older girl appeared frightened.

She immediately grabbed the man's coat and began kicking him in the shins. The man called her a bitch and told her to bugger off. His glasses fell off during the scuffle and when he bent over to pick them up, the man grabbed the older girl by the arm. He then pulled her towards the southern gate, while keeping her younger companion secure under his left arm. The trio left via the gate, still in conflict. Anthony assumed he had just witnessed a father wrangling his two unruly daughters and didn't

give it any more thought. Lez and Kath Ratcliffe and their two children, 13-year-old David and 11-year-old Joanne, were dedicated red-legged supporters. They attended most games during footy season, including the 1973 Round 20 clash against the Roosters. That day, Lez parked their car near what was then the River Torrens police station and the Jollies boat ramp, and the group made their way across to Adelaide Oval. Shortly before the game commenced at 2.10pm, the Ratcliffe family took a seat in Roel of

the Sir Edwin Smith Grandstand. There, they ran into friend and fellow Red Legs fan, Rita Huckle. Rita, like the Ratcliffs, was part of the usual crowd of red-legged supporters. She had brought along her four-year-old granddaughter, Kirstie Gordon, for the first time. Despite their seven-year age gap, Joanne took an immediate shine to Kirstie. It was their first time meeting, but the girls quickly became friends. They spent the majority of their time playing together and with other children in the grandstand, while the adults watched the game.

Game rules football games are divided into four 30-minute quarters. Quarter time refers to a 6-minute break that occurs at the end of the first and third quarters. There is also a 20-minute break halfway through the match. Lez and Kath Ratcliffe didn't allow their children to wander off during these breaks or the game's final quarter. This was so they would avoid getting caught up amongst the crowds rushing to use the toilets, buy snacks, or leave early. Early in the game, Kirstie needed to use the bathroom, and the Ratcliffs let Joanne escort

her to the nearest toilet block, roughly 300 meters away. Lez and Kath trusted their daughter entirely. Joanne was mature for her age, always followed their instruction, and knew what to do in case of emergency. The nearest toilets were located in a thoroughfare under the John Creswell Grandstand, next to where the Ratcliffs and Rita Huckle were seated. Multiple busy walkways led there, including the one that circled the perimeter of the oval.

Joanne and Kirstie returned from the toilets without incident. Later, they went to find straws for their drinks. At approximately 3.45pm, during the third quarter of the match, Kirstie needed to use the bathroom again. Given there was still plenty of time until the break, the Ratcliffs allowed Joanne to escort Kirstie once more. 20 minutes passed, and Joanne and Kirstie still hadn't returned to their seats. As 3.45pm drew closer, Lez Ratcliff went in search of the pair.

He expected to find them playing en route to the toilets, but didn't spot either girl on the short walk. Once he reached the toilet block under the John Creswell Grandstand, he asked a woman to check the female toilets on his behalf. Neither Joanne nor Kirstie were inside. At 4.09pm, the 3.25 break commenced. Hundreds of spectators flooded the concourses leading to the toilets and concession stands. As was customary, the iron gates at the southern entrance of the oval were opened.

This allowed the general public to bypass the turnstiles and enter the ground free of charge to watch the end of the match. When the game entered its final quarter at 4.17pm, Joanne and Kirstie were still nowhere to be seen. Although the roosters were well ahead before the break, the Red Legs made a comeback. The nail-biting spectacle drawing in more spectators and riling up those already present. The energy at Adelaide Oval was intense. Darby Munn, the secretary of the South Australian Cricket Association, was overseeing the match

in the Oval's secretary's office when a panicked Kath Ratcliff arrived. She informed Munn that Joanne and Kirstie were missing and requested that an announcement be made over the public address system. Munn refused, citing a rule that prevented mid-game announcements in case it disrupted play. He told Kath to inform a police officer, though made no attempt to alert the officer that happened to be sitting in his office at the time. Munn then instructed Kath to return to her seat, confident that the girls would make

their way back soon. The Ratcliffs and Rita Huckle spent the remainder of the game searching for Joanne and Kirstie. At 4.49pm, the final siren rang, signalling the end of the game. There was still no sign of the girls. As the crowd dispersed, the Ratcliffs returned to the secretary's office and demanded an announcement be made. This time, Dubby Munn obliged. Five minutes after the game had ended, Munn said into the public address system, Joanne

Ratcliff in Adelaide Oval, come back to your mother and father. The loud noise generated by the thousands of spectators shuffling towards the exits drowned out the announcement. It was highly unlikely that Joanne had gotten lost, as she had been to Adelaide Oval dozens of times. Rita suggested that the girls might have left the Oval after mistaking the three-quarter time siren for the one signalling the end of the game. The Ratcliffs dismissed this possibility.

Joanne had been attending footy games since she was five years old and was familiar with how it all worked. Even if she had thought the game was over, Les knew his daughter was far too responsible to leave the Oval, quote, on her own steam. It was also unlikely that Joanne was playing a prank on her family. She followed her parents' instruction and was only mischievous when the time was right. She also had no reason to act out or test boundaries. Joanne was caring and sensible, the type of child to help her mother with housework,

buy her brother treats, and handcraft gifts for her parents. Rebellion wasn't in her nature. Above all else, the Ratcliffs knew that Joanne took her duty to look after Kirstie seriously and would never leave her side. The Ratcliffs and Reader exhaustively searched the Oval and its car park as well as the adjacent lawn bowls area and tennis courts. With little else left to do, Les used a public pay phone and called the police. They arrived at the Oval near ten minutes after the final siren, but the majority of

the spectators had already left. They walked through the grounds and questioned those still lingering about. The Oval's assistant curator, Ken Walling, believed he had seen Joanne and Kirstie at around 4pm, nearly ten minutes before three-quarter time. They were trying to coke some kittens out from underneath a parked car in an equipment shed behind the John Creswell Grandstand. There had been an influx of stray cats around the Oval in recent times and children often played with them.

Joanne would have been drawn to the kittens in particular as she loved animals and had a pet cat of her own. She would dress it up in doll's clothes, wheel it around the yard in a pram, and sneak it treats when her mother wasn't looking. She had a way with animals in general that could have the most vicious looking dog eating out of the palm of her hand. Ken saw a man approach the girls from behind and offered to get the kittens out. He saw him again a short time later, walking towards the southern gate with the girls following

closely. The trio turned the band and Ken lost sight of them. The man was aged in his forties, five foot eight inches tall, walking with a slight stoop. He was wearing a sports coat, brown trousers, and wide brimmed country style hat. There were also reports of a man dressed in women's clothing seen lingering near the female toilets underneath the John Creswell Grandstand. He was tall with a protruding jaw and a large nose. He was wearing a brown pants suit, green shirt, patent leather boots, a brown wig, silver

nail polish, and carrying a handbag. Police were doubtful that this individual was involved in the girls disappearance as they didn't believe a perpetrator would draw attention to themselves in such a manner. With all the counts pointing to a possible abduction, a full-scale investigation commenced. Police established roadblocks on the city's outskirts while patrol cars swept nearby streets. The search radius extended outside Adelaide Oval to its surrounds, covering the North Adelaide Parklands, the banks of the River Torrens, and a nearby golf club and railway yard.

When darkness fell, a search boat cruised up and down the Torrens, shining a spotlight on the water. Les Ratcliffe spent the night wandering Adelaide's inner city streets. Meanwhile, Rita Huckle prepared to make a difficult phone call. 300 kilometers away in the Riverside town of Varenmark, Greg and Christine Gordon had just sat down to dinner. They were visiting friends for the weekend and had taken their two-year-old daughter Catherine with them.

They planned to return home that Saturday morning, but decided to extend their stay another night. Christine's mother, Rita, agreed to look after the couple's eldest daughter, Kirsty, for one more day. As they began their meal, the manager of the restaurant announced there was a phone call. Christine excused herself to take it. On the other line, her mother sobbed as she broke the news that Kirsty was missing. The Gordon's immediately set out on the three-hour drive back to Adelaide, scanning the radio

the entire time for any updates. There still hadn't been any sign of Joanne or Kirsty by the following morning of Sunday, August 26. As soon as daylight broke, Les Ratcliffe returned to Adelaide Oval to walk investigators through his daughter's last known movements. Emotionally drained, Les wept uncontrollably before falling to his knees and passing out on the concrete. When he regained consciousness, he told investigators that Joanne was very intelligent and safety

conscious. If she had been abducted, Les was sure she would have dropped some of her belongings like breadcrumbs to lead them to her location. The southern end of Adelaide Oval backs onto the River Torrens, an 85-kilometre-long waterway that winds from its source in the Adelaide Hills across the Adelaide Plains. It flows past the city centre before emptying into Golf St. Vincent between Henley Beach South and West Beach. Two busloads of police cadets scour the riverbanks around the CBD on their hands and knees.

They cut back the thick reeds using machetes. Nothing of significance was found. Speculation that Joanne and Kirstie had fallen into the murky water and drowned was also ruled out by the police aqualung squad who searched the river. The Torrens was also partially drained, but to no result. A $5,000 reward for information authorised by South Australian Premier Don Dunstan was deemed woefully inadequate by the Adelaide people. Community labourers selflessly donated a day's wages, increasing the amount by an extra $4,000.

Descriptions of the girls were broadcast throughout Australia. 11-year-old Joanne was 4'2'' tall of medium build with blue eyes and dark brown hair tied into pigtails. She was last seen wearing a white blouse, black tank top with white and mustard banding, black jeans, white and blue striped shoes and white socks. She was also wearing a watch and an imitation gold chain and medallion. 4-year-old Kirstie was 3'4'' tall of medium build with blue eyes, very fair skin with freckles and shoulder length honey blonde hair with a fringe.

She also had a slight scar above the bridge of her nose and a birthmark at the base of her spine and just below her hairline. Kirstie had been wearing a white pleated skirt, purple jumper, white pantyhose and brown lace-up shoes. On the morning of Monday, August 27, police searching the railway yards off the Moorford Street Bridge made an intriguing discovery. The road bridge was a short walk from the southern end of Adelaide Oval and spanned the river Torrens into the northwest corner of the CBD.

In a train carriage stored at the yard were two empty Fanta soft drink cans and a half eaten pastry that appeared to have child-sized bite marks. Fanta was Kirstie Gordon's favourite drink. Meanwhile, a composite sketch of the suspect Ken Walling had seen leaving Adelaide Oval with girls believed to be Joanne and Kirstie was widely circulated. Superintendent N.R. Lenton of South Australia Police didn't sugarcoat the situation and asked the public to report sexual deviants they might know, specifically those capable of molesting children.

He remarked, We don't want this to become another Beaumont case. The Beaumont comment was in reference to another high-profile missing children's case that had occurred in South Australia seven years earlier. On January 26, 1966, siblings 9-year-old Jane, 7-year-old Anna and 4-year-old Grant Beaumont disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the beachside suburb of Glenelg. As covered in episode 100 of Case File, the Beaumont children vanished in broad daylight from a grassy reserve near the Glenelg waterfront during Australia Day celebrations.

Police at the time were more inclined to believe that the trio had gotten lost or suffered an accident than met with foul play. It's now widely accepted that Jane, Anna and Grant were likely abducted and murdered, proving that kidnappings can occur at any time, any place, or in view of anyone. South Australia police had learned a lot since the Beaumont investigation and no longer took a conservative approach to missing children's cases. They were up against someone with the intelligence to wait until the final quarter of the football game to confront the girls, knowing the crowd's attention would be completely focused on the

field. Superintendent Lenton told the press, We do not know whether Joanne and Kirstie are dead or alive. We cannot look into the future. We can only hope. The Beaumont children had left behind a national legacy of paranoia and fear that reignited the moment Joanne and Kirstie disappeared. Both cases shared similarities, including the offender's modus operandi of targeting unsupervised

children in populated areas during the middle of the day. Some people also believed that the Adelaide Oval suspect resembled a sketch of the unidentified man witnessed interacting with Jane, Anna and Grant Beaumont shortly before their disappearance. Tuglenelg was just over 10km or a 20 minute drive south west of Adelaide Oval. There was also a tram line that went from the city to Tuglenelg, yet the police were unconvinced that the two crimes were connected. At 5.55pm on Monday evening, the Gordon family were sitting in their home in the outer metropolitan suburb of Hackham when the phone rang.

Kirstie's father Greg answered and a man with a thick Australian accent said, If you want to see your daughter alive, I want $25,000 by Thursday. Greg asked for proof that the caller had Joanne and Kirstie, but the caller replied, Never mind the proof, before hanging up. Greg contacted the police and attempted to have the call traced, but their efforts were unsuccessful. Almost an hour later at 6.50pm, the same man phoned the Gordon's again and repeated his demand.

Once again, police weren't able to trace this call. The mystery caller never made any further contact. It was believed that the extortion attempt was just a hoax. Following the police appeal for information, close to 400 calls came through from the public. Each one was recorded, evaluated and then assigned to special patrols to be followed up. At 9.45pm, the night Joanne and Kirstie disappeared, a witness passing through Adelaide Railway Station noticed two girls at a pie cart.

The station was on the southern side of the River Torrens with Adelaide Oval a short walkaway. The railway yard where the cans of Fanner and Half-Eaten Pastry were found was less than 400 metres down the road. No one came forward to identify the girls seen at the pie cart. A motorist reported a hold in Sudan carrying two young girls, one in the front passenger seat and the smaller of the two in the back, at 5am the day after the abduction. The vehicle had Victorian licence plates. It was driving down Port Road, a major thoroughfare connecting the city with its north-western

outskirts. Three days later, Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance was still making headlines. A woman read about the case in the daily paper and alerted her teenage son, Anthony Kilmartin, of the crime. He had worked at Adelaide Oval that afternoon selling drinks and lollies and witnessed two girls being dragged out the southern gate by a man. Anthony contacted police and reported what he had seen. Anthony's description of the confrontation was consistent with how Joanne would react

to such a threat. She was protective of others, especially younger children. One time, she hit an older boy with a plank of wood when she caught him bullying her brother. The Ratcliffs knew that if Kirstie was being harmed, Joanne would sacrifice her own safety to try and save her. If someone were to take Kirstie away, they would also need to do so by force. Greg and Christine Gordon said that their daughter was extremely shy and would never have gone off with a stranger.

In fact, she was so shy that she often hid behind the couch when visitors came to their house and refused to show her parents the highland dance moves she was learning at kindergarten. Anthony's description of the abductor matched the man Ken Walling had seen helping the girls lure stray kittens out from underneath the car. The greenkeeper of the nearby Adelaide Bowls Club also saw this man loitering around the oval between 11 and 11.30 on the morning of the abduction. Requests for the man in the white-brimmed hat to come forward to eliminate himself from the investigation went ignored.

Police did question 12 men in relation to the crime, but all were released without charge. Then, a call came through to police from a Catholic priest. A man had phoned him earlier wanting to clear his conscience. He identified himself as a country man who had been in Adelaide on an end-of-season footie trip at the time of Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance. His mates dared him to attend the Roosters vs Red Legs football game dressed as a woman. He donned the wig, a pantsuit with boots, and painted his nails, and was witnessed near the toilet block under the John Creswell grandstand.

He allegedly told the priest, it was a joke for a bet which went wrong. Tell the police it has nothing to do with this case and let them get on with their investigation. Les Ratcliffe appeared on national television to appeal to his daughter's captor. He requested that Joanne be dropped off on a straight corner as she would do the right thing and go to the nearest trustworthy person for help. Les said, if you have any decency in you and respect for these children, who are only 11 and 4, who have never done any harm to anybody whatsoever, if there is more than one of you, I would like the both of you to sit down and talk it over.

Les then addressed his daughter directly, saying, if you happen to listen to this love or you happen to get hold of the newspapers, I think there is a chance that we can sort this out and get you back without any harm. Your first duty is to protect Kirstie with whatever you can. Do not leave her, if possible. If you do, don't go too far away. I want you and this little girl back with us. Your mother, she's holding up pretty good.

She's got every faith in you. You know we all love you. Greg and Christine Gordon were reluctant to speak publicly about Kirstie's disappearance. Addressing the media from their home, Greg said, We have to try to keep up a front. If we let our emotions get the best of this, it won't do anyone any good. Christine added, It might seem to some people that we're trying to remain as detached as possible from all

this, but I can assure you it is only a front. It is something we have to do for our baby Catherine as well as ourselves. By the end of the first week, police had received over 1400 calls from the public, with 200 sexual deviants named as persons of interest. A 19-year-old man named Michael Mitchell crossed their radar after it was discovered he had recently escaped from a mental health facility. The teenager had been convicted of murdering 6-year-old Cheryl Hutchinson and hiding her body underneath a corrugated iron sheet on the banks of the River Tyrants.

But investigators stressed they weren't directly linking Mitchell to the incident at Adelaide Oval. The amount of information provided to police was overwhelming and they struggled to keep up. Two weeks later, police were informed of a sighting of two girls believed to be Joanne and Kirstie in the city fringe suburb of Thebeton, less than 3km west of Adelaide Oval. The pair were seen with a man on Port Road at 5pm on the Saturday of the football game. The man was holding the younger girl while the older one attempted to fight him off.

The older girl then turned and walked towards the city, at which point the man let go of the younger child and grabbed the older one by the arm. He then held both children by the forearms and dragged them onwards, with the older girl appearing to be in distress. The man was described as having an athletic build, a mustache and sideburns, and was dressed in a blue shirt and a wide brimmed hat. Another witness in Thebeton saw a man matching this description carrying a young girl outside the Southick Hotel on the corner of Port Road and Phillip Street at around 5.15pm.

The older girl was spotted at the same time with another man further down the road. The two girls were then seen at 6pm on North Parade in the neighbouring suburb of Torrensville. The times and locations of these sightings fit the timeline of Joanne and Kirsty's abduction. It was all part of a connected route that started with Adelaide Oval and moved across the river to the pie cart at the Adelaide railway station. From there, they progressed down the street to the railway yard that backed onto Port Road, which led to Thebeton and Torrensville. Although Thebeton man didn't precisely match descriptions of the perpetrator witness that

Adelaide Oval, investigators couldn't dismiss the possibility that he had changed clothes or had an accomplice. They appealed for anyone who had been walking along Port Road with two girls at this time to come forward, but no one did. Seven detectives and 30 uniformed officers commenced a week-long search of Thebeton's parks, cemeteries, backyards and riverbanks. They also door-knocked 1,000 nearby homes. Their inquiries led to an abandoned house in Thebeton, identified as a possible hiding

spot for the girl's kidnapper. An extensive search of the location came up empty. Despite reaching a dead end, investigators considered deciding in Thebeton their strongest lead to date. In the following months, the reward for information was increased to $10,000. Angered by the possibility that the girls had been killed, the public called for the death penalty to be reinstated for convicted child murderers. Premier Don Dunstan denied their request.

In the Gordon household, there were reminders of Kirstie everywhere, from her pink toothbrush to the toys next to her bed. Christine and Greg Gordon prayed every night for their daughter's safe return, but couldn't help but feel they'd never see her again. Two-year-old Catherine Gordon missed her older sister and often asked where Kirstie was. One day, Catherine awaited Kirstie to return home, thinking she was at kindergarten. When the afternoon came and she still hadn't returned, Catherine asked her mother,

Kirstie's gone, hasn't she, mum? May 1974 marked nine months since the disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirstie Gordon. Police continued to receive around seven calls a week regarding the case. To maintain the public's attention, Les Ratcliffe had photographs of the missing girls screened at drive-in movie theaters around the city. He spent his Saturday nights walking the streets of Thebeton and Torrensville with family and friends, looking for clues. Both suburbs consisted of close-knit, working-class communities that would notice anything out

of place. But there were no further alleged sightings of Joanne or Kirstie. In July that year, assistance was sought from renowned Dutch psychic Gerard Crozet. He was often used by police to help locate missing persons. In 1966, Crozet had been flown to Adelaide to assist in finding the Beaumont children. A media frenzy had ensued, but his attempts to locate the children were unsuccessful. Although Crozet's overall success rate in other cases was deemed no better than chance, he continued to believe in his psychic abilities.

Adelaide journalist Dick Wordley travelled to Holland to discuss Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance with Crozet. The psychic was now elderly and in ill health after suffering from stomach ulcers. Crozet said that his son, 36-year-old Gerard Crozet Jr., had inherited his psychic abilities and would be happy to help. Crozet Jr. told Dick he knew where Joanne and Kirstie were buried and who was responsible for their deaths. He also claimed that the killer would strike again, quote, somewhere in Australia during

the current cycle of the moon. Crozet Sr. added that a farm, a red bus and a high chimney were also significant clues. 1974 ended with both the Ratcliffe and Gordon families welcoming new arrivals. In August, Christine Gordon gave birth to her third daughter, Alyssa. Two months later, Kath Ratcliffe had her second baby girl, Susie. By 1977, four years had passed with no breakthroughs in the case. The Ratcliffe sought compensation from the South Australian government under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act.

Lez acknowledged that no amount of money could replace a hair on any of his family's heads. The purpose of the lawsuit was to address the family's dissatisfaction with the state government's handling of the case. They also wanted to offset the costs for the ongoing search for Joanne and Kirstie. If successful, they stood to receive a maximum of $52,000 in compensation. The family ultimately received $6,000. Some time after this, a woman named Sue Laurie contacted the police to make a belated statement. A memory had haunted her since she first learned of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirstie Gordon's

abduction. She had been hesitant to report it until years later when her husband finally convinced her to do so. On the day of the abduction, a teen-aged Sue had been visiting the Adelaide Zoo. The zoo is nestled on the city side bank of the River Torrens, less than one kilometer east from Adelaide Oval, on the opposite side of the water. Sue and her father had been walking in the direction of the oval in the late afternoon. She looked across the river and saw a young girl being carried by a man whom she assumed

to be the girl's grandfather. The girl was crying, and an older, pre-adolescent girl was chasing after them. She was thumping the man while crying out. We want to go back. The man was aged in his fifties of thin build with high cheekbones and hollow cheeks. He had been wearing a checked coat and a wide brimed hat. She was certain about the time of the sighting as she remembered hearing the siren blare from Adelaide Oval signifying either the beginning or end of the third quarter.

The man and girls were heading in the opposite direction to where police had searched immediately following Joanne and Kirstie's abduction. Sue told reporters, �The only other thing I need to say is the parents of Joanne should take heart that their little girl did everything she could to protect her little friend.� Desperate for answers, Les Ratcliffe reached out to Claire Voyance for help. With his blessing, in July 1978, the Channel 10 television network paid to fly Gerard Croyzette Jr. to Adelaide.

Their intention was to make a documentary about his search for Joanne and Kirstie. Croyzette Jr. visited Adelaide Oval and claimed that a man had approached the two girls outside of the toilets. He had convinced them to follow him to the river to play with the ducks there. Croyzette Jr. said the abductor wasn't wearing a wide brimmed hat but a gray suit with square patterns, a striped shirt and a floral tie. He was 42 years old and driving a blue car. Croyzette Jr. claimed the abductor had taken the girls to one of the old Adelaide City

glass houses near the Oval, where he killed them. He then disposed of Kirstie's body at the Wingfield Dump, 15 kilometers north of Adelaide. Joanne was then buried 100 kilometers further north, near an old cellar in the country town of Bowmans. Investigators descended on the alleged dump site in Bowmans, anxious yet dubious about what they might uncover. They dug for remains, but nothing was found. Croyzette Jr. declared that searching the Wingfield Dump for Kirstie's remains would

be useless. Just like his father's trip failed to locate the Bowmans children in 1966, Croyzette Jr.'s so-called visions didn't bring the police any closer to finding Joanne and Kirstie. In July 1979, the Ratcliffe family called for a coronial link west to be held in relation to Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance. It was conducted by State Coroner Kevner Hearn. He openly criticized the Derby Munn, the secretary of the South Australian Cricket Association, who had refused to broadcast an announcement during the football match when the girls were

first noticed to be missing. Coroner Hearn also criticized the Munn for instructing the Ratcliffs to return to their seats, saying that the Cricket Association should have notified the police of the situation right away. It wouldn't have been a difficult task, considering an officer was in the secretary's office at the time Ratcliffe was present. Coroner Hearn was unable to uncover any new information. He concluded what was already known, that the girls were most likely taken by force

or under duress by a man whose identity hadn't yet been established. Hearn believed that the suspect would eventually be apprehended and made to answer for his, quote, heinous crime. The Ratcliffs were satisfied with the findings of the Incwest, with Lez telling the media, I intend to keep searching until I die, or I catch the bastard, whichever comes first. The following year, Lez was diagnosed with cancer. This prompted him to pen an open letter to the people of Adelaide, which read, Do not forget the Adelaide Oval Abduction of August 1973.

The man is still loose, and there are still children on the streets. As a parent, I could not wish for anyone to live through what I have had to live through. After Joanne disappeared, it took me years to get back to three parts of what I was before we lost her. I smiled, but I was crying inside. One has to go on, however difficult it is. I do not want sympathy. My family does not want sympathy.

The illness has caught up to me just when I was beginning to accept Joanne was gone forever. Despite it all, I am happy now. Two weeks later, Lez Ratcliff passed away at the age of 46. By the early 80s, the investigation into Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance went cold. Then, a few years later, a new person of interest emerged. On Sunday, June 3, 1983, 15-year-old Richard Kelvin was walking approximately 300 meters from his family home in the affluent city fringe suburb of North Adelaide. Others heard several raised voices followed by car doors slamming and the sounds of a

car with a loud exhaust speeding away. After that, Richard was never seen again. Richard was the son of local television personality Rob Kelvin and his abduction received extensive media attention. A wide-scale search ensued and a reward was announced. Just over seven weeks later, a family was searching for moss rocks in the town of Kersbruck, 36 kilometers northeast of Adelaide. They made their way down a dirt airstrip where they came across Richard's body.

An autopsy revealed that Richard had likely been kept alive and held captive for up to five weeks. The presence of alcohol and a variety of sedatives in his system indicated he'd been drugged. He'd also been beaten and subject to brutal sexual abuse. Several months later, accountant Bevan Spencer Von Einem was arrested for Richard's murder. It's speculated that Von Einem acted with a group of other high-profile and influential men known as the family, who may be responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four other young men.

Von Einem went to trial in 1990. During a committal hearing in the lead-up, a crown witness told the court that Von Einem allegedly confessed to abducting two children from the football. This lead was taken seriously as he had been living in Theboten at the time of Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance. Von Einem also claimed to have killed the Beaumont children and dumped their bodies in the Maiponga Reservoir, 60 kilometers south of Adelaide. The house in Theboten had since been demolished, but a large-scale search of the reservoir

commenced. These divers from the underwater recovery unit entered the 28,800 mL of water, their vision compromised by the fine silt and depths of up to 100 m. They searched for days, but failed to uncover any evidence linking Von Einem to either case. In 1998, another suspect emerged when an arrest was made over a cold-case murder in Queensland. On August 26, 1970, five-year-old Susan McKay and her seven-year-old sister Judith disappeared from a bus stop on their way to school in the coastal city of Townsville. Three days later, their bodies were found 25 kilometers away in a dry creek bed.

Both sisters had been raped and stabbed three times in the chest. Susan had died by strangulation, while Judith had been suffocated by sand. Their school uniforms had been neatly folded and placed in their school bags nearby. Townsville police worked tirelessly to catch the sister's killer, but to no avail. 28 years later, a sexual assault survivor came forward to report her suspicions about the man who had molested her as a child, Arthur Stanley Brown. An investigation ensued, with police uncovering circumstantial evidence to link Brown to the murders of Susan and Judith McKay.

He was arrested and charged, with his photo circulated on national news bulletins. In the picture, he was wearing his signature wide-brimmed hat. Many noticed that even in his old age, Brown bore a striking resemblance to the suspect sketch from the Adelaide Oval Abductions. When Sue Laurie saw Brown's photo on television, she screamed. He looked just like the man she had observed on the afternoon of August 25, 1973, carrying a girl away from the Adelaide Oval area, while another fought him off, even down to his wide-brimmed hat.

Although Brown lived in Queensland, he had travelled interstate frequently over the years. During the 1960s and 70s, he worked for the Queensland Public Works Department. His employment records were no longer available, so it couldn't be confirmed whether or not he was away from work in August 1973. Efforts were made to determine whether Brown had passed through South Australia at that time, but accommodation operators and banks were only required to keep their records for seven years. Any documents that might have confirmed his presence were long gone.

By the time Brown was arrested for the murders of Susan and Judith Mackay, he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia and was ruled unfit for trial. He passed away in 2002, without ever being convicted. Following his death, it was determined he may have lied to investigators about his mental capacity and successfully duped them into thinking his health was more deteriorated than it really was. South Australian police were unable to establish any links or evidence to indicate that Brown was connected with any offenses in Adelaide.

They confirmed that Brown had been ruled out as a suspect in Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon's abduction. In mid-2000, former senior inspector Colin Lehman called for Joanne and Kirsty to be declared legally dead. Having initially led the investigation into the girl's disappearance, he told reporters, �Being involved in the case as I was, you've got to try to tell the family something so they don't give up. You have to tell them something will come up.

But sometimes, it does not.� During National Missing Persons Week in August 2002, a special plaque commemorating the loved ones of missing South Australians was unveiled in Rhymel Park on the north-eastern edge of Adelaide's CBD. Embedded into a bench, it aimed to provide a place for the friends and relatives of missing people to reflect. Speaking publicly for the first time in many years, Kirsty's mother, Christine Gordon, said, �It will not bring closure, but it will provide us with a place we can go.

We don't have a cemetery or burial site. This is all we've got. Time does not make it worse, but it does not get any better, either. It just takes any little memory to trigger things. We always wonder what Kirsty's first day of school would have been like. We always wonder what could have been.� By 2006, Joanne and Kirsty had been missing for 33 years. As the anniversary of their disappearance approached, Joanne's younger sister Susie

spoke publicly about the case for the first time. Being been born 14 months after Joanne went missing, Susie remarked, �I may not have been born when Jo disappeared, but I know I would have loved her all the same.� After enduring years of anguish, Susie said her mother and older brother David had resigned to the fact that they would never find Joanne alive. They just wanted her body found so that she could be laid to rest. As a teenager, Susie had a strong desire to find the person responsible so she could make him suffer the way her family had.

As she got older, her need for revenge subsided and was replaced by the need to properly grieve. She urged, quote, �I no longer care who it was. The main thing I want is not to know why, but to have closure for my family. It would lay Joanne's soul to rest and that of my father. I think that even though dad has been dead for a number of years, he is still out there, still looking. I really want that closure for him, so his soul can lay at peace.� As a result of Susie's plea for information, 19 new reports were made to the police.

One came from a woman identified as Mrs F, who had been 9 years old at the time of the girl's disappearance. Mrs F told police that on Saturday, August 25, 1973, she had been playing on the steps near a toilet block at Adelaide Oval. A man had approached and began asking inappropriate questions, such as if she had ever kissed a boy or had sex. This went on for about 10 minutes, before Mrs F's father noticed the interaction and called his daughter back to her family.

As soon as Joanne and Kirsty's abduction made headlines, Mrs F's parents reported this incident to the police. They were told an officer would be sent over to speak with them right away. But no one showed up, and the report was never followed up on. Given the time that had passed, all Mrs F and her father could recall was that the man had been about 30 years old, clean shaven with light brown hair, and dressed in a sports jacket. He hadn't been wearing a hat, nor did he match the composite sketch of the man witnessed

leaving Adelaide Oval with two girls believed to be Joanne and Kirsty. Mrs F still found it difficult to visit the area surrounding the oval, as it gave her the eerie feeling that something bad had happened there. The following year, in 2007, South Australia's Sexual Crimes Investigations Branch conducted an unrelated investigation into the abuse of children in state care. As part of what was titled the Mulligan Inquiry, convicted pedophile Mark Trevor Marshall submitted a 40-page handwritten document. Marshall was serving infinite jail time for committing various sexual assaults on children.

Authorities had declared him unable or unwilling to control his sexual urges. In the document, Marshall claimed to have knowledge of multiple crimes, including the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon. Although he was only three or four years old at the time of their disappearance, he claimed to have been present when the girls were kidnapped by his grandfather, known pedophile Stanley Arthur Hart. Marshall alleged that Hart, who worked as a butcher at the time, donned an apron and then killed the girls before burying their bodies in barrels.

He referenced two locations, including a property in the rural town of Yatna, approximately 220 kilometers north of Adelaide. The other was the Pekina Dam, a further 28 kilometers north. Marshall also provided hand-drawn maps and descriptions of the burial site. He claimed there were two wells located on the property. The crime investigators said the documents would be reviewed, but ultimately dismissed the claims as nothing more than Marshall's sexual fantasies. He had submitted similar allegations over the years, which further investigations had

proven to be false. Furthermore, police confirmed they had interviewed Hart immediately following Joanne and Kirsty's deduction, and there was no evidence to link him to the crime. He had since passed away in 1999. Private investigators working on behalf of the Ratcliffe and Gordon families looked into Marshall's claims. They believed the documents contained credible information which was being ignored by the police.

Not only was Hart known to abuse children, he also physically resembled the prime suspect in the Ratcliffe-Gordon case. He was also a North Adelaide rooster supporter, who regularly attended games during the 70s. In 2009, the private investigators visited the Pekina Reservoir. Armed in the early 1900s, the reservoir served as an early irrigation system to supply water to surrounding farms. Access is granted via a long dirt road that leads down to the water's edge. It's an isolated place, hidden at the base of the rolling Oro Roo hillside and framed

by thick bushland. Although the dam is no longer in use, it still fills with water during wet seasons. At other times, the water dries and recedes, exposing the dam's sloping bank and muddy base. Following the maps provided by Marshall, the private investigators came across a concealed and submerged tunnel carved into the reservoir wall. After trudging some distance into the dark passage, they eventually came across a set of sealed metal gates.

Further in, they discovered two fuel barrels stamped with the acronym USAF, United States Air Force. Inside the barrels was a reddish honeycomb-like substance. It was independently tested and came back positive for traces of blood and acid. They also found a girl's shoe. Arthur Stanley Hart's former yetna property was located 30 kilometers south of the reservoir. A search of this location uncovered a stained butcher's apron with matching butcher's pants, a medical book, newspaper clippings related to Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance,

and a wide brimmed, a Cobra-style hat. The evidence was handed to the police. A few days later, the private investigators received a letter from the Attorney General asking them not to pursue the case. Later, police went to Yetna and conducted their own searches of the property. They also ran their own forensic tests on the substance found in the barrels, but only found a, quote, weak to very weak trace of blood that couldn't be confirmed to be human. While police weren't ruling hard out as a suspect, they were satisfied that nothing

uncovered at his property was related to Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance. They dismissed Marshall's claims as nothing more than a fabrication of his imagination. In 2012, Susie Ratcliffe launched an online appeal for information. This prompted a former neighbor of the Ratcliffe's to come forward to implicate her father in the crime. She also claimed to know where the girl's bodies were buried. The woman provided certain information about the Ratcliffe's that gave police reason to believe this lead was credible.

They investigated the claims further until it was revealed that the woman's father had been friends with Joanne's grandfather. She had often overheard the two men discussing the case. Over the years, she had convinced herself that her dad was involved, but it turned out to be nothing more than a child's wild imagination. As the 40-year anniversary of Joanne and Kirstie's disappearance approached in 2013, police once again appealed for witnesses to come forward. As a result, 73-year-old Robert McMahon reached out to Adelaide-based newspaper The Sunday

Mail, claiming to have seen the girls on the day they went missing. At the time, Robert had lived in a boarding house on Vine Street in the inner northern suburb of Prospect. The house was less than four kilometers north of Adelaide-Oval, which could be reached in a five-minute drive, depending on traffic. Robert said he was watching footy on the television when one of his housemates came inside with two young girls he claimed were his grandchildren. He was a Scottish man aged in his 40s, whom Robert knew only as Scotty.

The older girl attempted to say something, but Scotty told her to shut up. Scotty showed the girls off to his housemates and then locked them into a cream-colored van that was parked at the back of the house. Robert found the incident so unsettling that he had taken notes and drawn sketches of the girls, which he then placed in a sealed envelope. When he later learned of Joanne and Kirsty's abduction, he recognized the pair as Scotty's supposed grandchildren. He reported the incident to the police, but they didn't get back to him.

He tried again the following week, as well as on the first anniversary of the abduction. But the police never responded, and Robert eventually gave up out of sheer frustration. For the first time since 1973, Robert opened the sealed envelope in front of reporters for the Sunday Mail. The sketches of the girls within were labeled taller girl and little girl. Taller girl had hair just below her ears and a distinct short fringe that barely covered her forehead. Robert had taken note that she had light hair.

The little girl sketch depicted a younger-looking child with short curly hair that Robert had noted was dark. Taller girl and little girl looked eerily similar to Joanne and Kirsty. Robert described Scotty as being about 165cm tall with a broad Scotty accent and distinct limp. Major crime detectives collected the documents and interviewed Robert, but nothing further came from this line of inquiry. Susie Ratcliffe questioned why police had dismissed certain pieces of evidence over

the years and failed to follow up on particular leads. She called for further investigations to be made, stating, We seem to be left in the dark. It might be 40 years to police and just another case, but to us, it is 40 years of us not getting to watch Jo grow up. That's 40 years of not having a daughter, a sister, an auntie. The following year, in February 2014, the South Australian government offered a $1 million reward to solve 13 of the state's highest profile missing person cases, including that

of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon. The reward was meant to be a strong inducement for any reluctant witnesses to come forward, but the money went unclaimed. In 2015, South Australia police took inspiration from a crime-solving strategy used in the United States and created a bespoke deck of playing cards that were distributed to prisons throughout the state. Each of the 52 cards detailed a specific South Australian cold case, along with a photo of the associated victim or victims.

The cards were given to prisoners to play with and were accompanied by a letter offering various incentives for information. Prisoners could benefit from potential immunity from prosecution, a reduction to their current sentences, financial rewards, and assistance with personal safety. Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon were featured on The Ace of Hearts. That same year, Susie Ratcliffe and journalist Brian Littaly founded Leave a Light On. The organisation aims to raise awareness of cold missing person cases in Australia, while also providing help to affected families.

The name was inspired by the Ratcliffe family's habit of leaving their porch light on every night to help Joanne find her way back home. Susie explained that families of missing people are often disappointed with the way investigations are handled, with evidence often going missing and police failing to follow up on certain suspects and witnesses. Often times, it's the families themselves who are left to investigate potential leads, she said. You struggle to be able to deal with this on an everyday basis, dealing with grief and

anguish of losing a loved one in this sort of situation. But to have that added torment of doing things that realistically the police should be doing adds to that pain. In 2016, the otherwise private Gordon family released a statement explaining why they had chosen to avoid the media spotlight in the years following Kirsty's abduction. They described enduring a rollercoaster ride of emotions, including some lows of extreme intensity. Confusing to let Kirsty's abductor take them as collateral victims, the Gordon stated,

it was important to us to be independent and to feel in control of our lives for the sake of our family. Two years later, in 2018, another potential burial site was explored in the suburb of North Climpton, approximately 8km southwest of Adelaide Oval. It was the former Castelloy factory site, which had once been owned by prominent businessman Harry Phipps. Two brothers had come forward claiming Phipps had paid them to dig a large hole there three days after the Beaumont children went missing in 1966.

Phipps had lived in Adelaide in 1973 and resembled the sketch of the main suspect in Joanne and Kirsty's case, prompting speculation that he might also have been involved in the Adelaide Oval abductions. A major excavation of the site was conducted, but nothing was uncovered to link Phipps to either of the unsolved crimes. On March 13, 2019, Kath Ratcliffe passed away. Announcing the death on social media, Susie said, My mum took her last breaths this morning and gained her angel wings, joining my step-dad,

dad and Joanne. I know she is now at peace, free from her pain and suffering. The answers she has longed for, finally in reach. As of 2020, Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirsty Gordon still haven't officially been declared dad, and the investigation into their disappearance remains open. The Leaver-Lydon Foundation, which is still run by Susie Ratcliffe, is calling for the creation of specialist missing person units in every state and territory. The organization wants long-term missing persons to be automatically reported to the National

Register, greater cooperation between states and territories, equal rewards for information, and all evidence for long-term missing person cases to be retested for DNA. Each year, on October 21, the organization asks that people across the country leave their porch lights on or burn a candle in memory of the many missing persons across Australia and as a symbol of hope for their loved ones. Susie has inherited several treasured gifts that Joanne either handmade or bought for her family. Among them is a wonky clay ashtray and a delicate Christmas candle, which she plans to one

day hand down to her own daughter as a gift from her auntie Joanne. She keeps a photo of Joanne on her desk as a constant reminder of the sister she never met, who has helped raise awareness of many other missing people through Leaver-Lydon. Susie has stated, I am so incredibly proud of Jo because I know she fought. She fought so hard to get Kirstie back from that man. People say to me, why didn't she run away? But she was given a responsibility that day to look after Kirstie and not let her out

of sight under any circumstances. And she stuck with it. She had a temper like you wouldn't believe, so she would have given him hell. She fought to try and keep Kirstie safe.