Casefile True Crime - Case 23: The Frankston Serial Killer (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 26, 2016

[Part 2 of 2] Part 2 of the Frankston Serial Killer. At the end of part 1 police had found out who owned the suspicious vehicle parked on Skye Road at the time of Natalie Russell's murder. Will it get them anywhere though? For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-23-the-frankston-serial-killer-part-2

This is part 2 of the Frankston serial killer. If you haven't listened to part 1 yet, please go back and do so before continuing. We left last week just after the body of Natalie Russell was found, the third victim of the Frankston serial killer. And police had the registered owner's details of a suspicious vehicle that was seen on Sky Road at the time of Natalie's murder. Detectives were in a check and found that the vehicle belonged to a man by the name of Paul Charles Denier.

They saw Paul and his car had been checked out before too. He had recently been spoken to by police sitting in his car alone at night in a nearby car park. Paul Denier was born on the 14th of April 1972, making him 21 years old at the time. He had four brothers and one sister. Paul was the middle child. Paul was average looking, overweight with a baby face, clean cut and was quietly spoken. He basically looked the total opposite of what you would expect a serial killer to look like.

His parents were Anthony and Maureen Denier. They moved to Australia from the United Kingdom in 1965. They lived in Sydney and Adelaide before settling in Melbourne. Paul didn't mix well with the other kids at school. He struggled academically, had low self esteem and other kids tended to stay away from him, leaving him isolated. From a young age he displayed a complete lack of emotion about pretty much everything. When he was 11 years old he cut the throat of his sister's teddy bear.

When confronted about it, he just smirked. Around that time the family's cat was found hanging in a tree with its throat cut. Paul blamed the neighbours, but his older brother noticed the blood on Paul's pocketknife. At 13 he was arrested for stealing a car. He ended up getting a caution for that because he was a juvenile. At 15 he was charged with assault on a fellow student. He was also caught staring through the window at one of his brother's girlfriends who was undressing. Paul worked a number of manual jobs.

He was sacked from all of them for either dishonesty or for being lazy. He had an interest in knives and he liked going out on long walks by himself in the middle of the night. He met his girlfriend Sharon Johnson while working at a grocery store, one of the seven jobs he was sacked from. Sharon was described as being very controlling, demanding to know where he was at all times. Paul was said to be well and truly under Sharon's thumb. Sharon was opinionated and often rude in the outspoken. Paul was generally more reserved and softly spoken.

He had very few friends, it was just Sharon and his family that he mainly associated with. Paul applied to join the police force in early 1993. He failed the physical due to being overweight. He knew the Frankston area well, having lived there most of his life. He spent a lot of time in his teenage years smoking marijuana with his brothers at both Lloyd Park where Elizabeth Stevens was found, and along Taylor's Road where Debbie Freem was found. Detectives paid Paul a visit at his Frankston North unit in the afternoon of the 31st of July, 1993, the day after Natalie Russell was killed.

Paul was at home with his girlfriend Sharon. They invited the detectives inside their small, messy and barely furnished unit. They asked all of the usual background questions, then got down to business, asking Paul what he had done and where he had been the day before. Paul explained that he woke up about 7.30am. He drove Sharon to work, then went to an ATM in Seaford and withdrew $40. He then drove around to a few car wreckers to try and find a spare wheel for his old Toyota. He found one, returned home, worked on his car for a bit,

then went to a different car wreckers to try and find a new speedo cable. He called in to visit his mother while he was out, but she wasn't home, so he had a coffee with her boyfriend. While he was out on this journey, his car overheated, so he had to pull over. He topped the water up and went for a quick walk while waiting for the radiator to cool down. He started the car, but a short distance later it overheated again. He pulled over on Sky Road, checked under the bonnet and noticed a hose had come loose. He needed a screwdriver, so he closed the bonnet and walked home to get one, also filling his water bottles up so he could top up the radiator again.

That was his explanation for being on Sky Road. Detectives wanted to know why he didn't knock on one of the doors of the nearby houses to see if he could borrow a screwdriver and use their water. Paul replied, I don't like going into other people's houses. The detectives then wanted to know why he didn't go to the nearby golf course. Paul replied, I didn't think of that. Paul then explained the numerous scratches and the larger, deeper cuts on his middle finger and thumb were caused by all the work he was doing on his car the day before.

Detectives then wanted to know what Paul was doing three weeks earlier, the night Debbie Freem disappeared. Paul surprised them when he remembered specifically that it was a Thursday night and when he put himself at Cana Nook train station just around the corner from where Debbie Freem disappeared. Paul had just placed himself at the scene of two murders. Instead of questioning detectives and being suspicious as to why they were there asking him all these questions, he sat back casually and answered them all, almost as if he was enjoying what was going on. He was calm and relaxed, barely batting an eyelid. Paul agreed to go to the police station for a more formal interview.

He was taken to Frankston Police Station where he was interviewed by Sergeant Rod Wilson and Senior Constable Mark Wolf from the Homicide Squad. The interview commenced at 9.20pm on Saturday the 31st of July. It was recorded on video. They advised him he didn't have to say anything and that he also had the right to speak to a lawyer. Paul said he didn't want to exercise either right, he was happy to talk. Paul continuing, I must inform you that you're not obliged to say or do anything, but anything you say or do may be given an evidence. Do you understand that? Yeah.

What is your age and date of birth? I'm 21 years old, I was born on the 14th of April 1972. Okay, are you an Australian citizen? Yep. Are you currently employed? No, I'm unemployed at the present time. All we'd like to do, Paul, is if you can just run through starting with yesterday morning. I got up in the morning about 20 to 8, 7, 30, 20 to 8 and there's some wires.

They painstakingly went back over the story he had given them back in his unit. Detectives went over every detail. There were contradictions and times weren't matching up. The explanation he was giving for his injuries wasn't making much sense either. As I was coming down, say past Karimov Drive, my neighbour's temperature gauge started to go right up to high. So I just pulled over the inside road and right across the road, you know, golf course and everything. So I pulled up there and I checked under the car under the bottom and found out the hose could come loose. When we saw you down at your flat this afternoon, I noticed a number of cuts on your fingers.

Can you just put your hands right on the desk here so that it can just right up here? This injury here is a long sort of a cut. Just explain how you got that injury and when you got that injury. I got it yesterday and I was working on the car. How are you saying it occurred? Well, the fan spins this way. So if I'm standing in front of the car, like here, the fan spins that way, the alternator sits there. And there's wires running down underneath the bottom of the radiator.

There's a wire at the top, which was for a wire that I just recently put on. And that's what it means when I put my hand down there, I caught the fan. Why did you have it running at that stage when you were checking the radiator? Time for the workout on class. Detectives asked him more questions about Debbie Freem. Paul stuck with his story, putting himself at Cannonook train station roughly at the same time and just around the corner from where Debbie went missing. Not only that, it was the one night Paul failed to pick his girlfriend Sharon up from work.

Amazingly, on the night Elizabeth Stevens was murdered, he told detectives he was out walking in the rain. He walked from his place to his mum's place, then to Sharon's mum's place. He says he was looking for a spare car battery. The area he was walking, Elaine Warren, right near Lloyd Park. Instead of giving himself an alibi, all he was doing was placing himself at the scene of each murder. Yesterday, your car was parked opposite the location where the body of Natalie Russell was found. On the night that Debbie Freem disappeared, you walked over to Cannonook railway station, missed the train and walked back.

And on the night Elizabeth Stevens disappeared, you walked in a very close proximity to Lloyd Park on your way to pick up this battery. Do you think that's fairly coincidental though, in all the circumstances? Are you responsible for the deaths of any of these women? No. When they asked him specifically about Natalie Russell's murder, Paul denied having anything to do with it. But he said he was aware of what happened because he drove past the scene. Are you aware that a girl was found murdered in Frankston?

Yeah. Today being Saturday. Yeah. When did you first become aware of that? Well, I oversaw some police cars and everything when I was driving up Sky Road this morning, and SES workers. So you saw SES workers and all that in Sky Road? Yeah.

And I had some white tape across the walkway. Who were you? You saw who you saw mate? Yeah, I saw you. And I saw the other guy. And that was what were you doing when you saw that? Or were you going or what were you doing? Oh, we were going to the wreckers.

He was then asked if he knew anything about the victims personally or how they died. Paul replied. Yeah, Elizabeth Stevens had a throat cut, and the other girl Debbie Freem had multiple stab wounds or something to her body and upper body. Up here. Paul pointed to the exact spot where Debbie's wounds were. Detective Wilson pounced. Why did you indicate the exact area?

I was just pointing, that's all. But why did you point there? It was just a lucky guess. When detectives asked if he would provide his fingerprints and a sample of his blood and hair, Paul agreed. But he started to look very uncomfortable. Detectives paused the interview for a coffee break and to wait for an officer to come and take his hair and blood samples.

Well, we just had to spend the interview for a short time. Do you have anything else you want, like a cup of coffee or a glass of water? Yeah, I'd like another cup of coffee. Any heavy coffee? I'd like two. All right, I'll get you a cup of coffee, all right? Just a short break. During the break, Paul went to the toilet.

The officer who escorted him to the toilet was Detective Darren O'Lachlan. Paul saw that O'Lachlan was wearing a cross and he started to ask him about religion. The conversation then moved to DNA. Paul wanted to know why they wanted his blood and hair. Had they found something at the scene? And if they had, how long would it take to match? O'Lachlan said he couldn't answer any of those questions. He would have to check with Detective Wilson.

Paul was silent for a short period of time before looking at O'Lachlan and saying, Okay, I killed all three of them. O'Lachlan immediately alerted Detective Wilson and the interview was started again. This time, O'Lachlan sat in on the interview as Paul seemed to take a liking to him. Some of the audio clips you're about to hear are taken from the interview and some are taken from a walkthrough of the crime scenes that was done after the interview. First, they talked about the murder of Elizabeth Stevens. You spoke to Detective O'Lachlan here and you were told, Detective O'Lachlan,

that you were responsible for the murders of the three women. Is that correct? Just tell us in your own words, Paul, what happened in relation to the death of Elizabeth Stevens at Langwyne. I sort of got off the bus and I walked up behind her. Stuck my left hand around her. Banned her mouth like this and held her and I got her head right here. I started choking up with flames and she passed out after a while. Now I pulled out my knife and I dragged her to where she was sitting.

Now I threw two branches on her body. Can you tell me why you attacked her on that night? I just, I just had, just had the feeling I saw her. What sort of feeling can you possibly describe when you had this feeling? Just wanted, just wanted to kill, just wanted to kill. The gun he describes wasn't a real gun, it was a fake pretend gun he had made himself at home. Paul also admitted to the attack on Rosa Toth. The detective said, what did you plan to do with Rosa?

Paul said, I was just going to drag her in the park and kill her. That's all. He went on to say that when Rosa ran away, he caught the train from Seaford to Kananook. And not long after getting off the train, he saw Debbie Fremes getting out of her car at the shop. OK, can you tell us what happened here? Well, the car was sitting over there. This is Debbie Fremes car we're talking about. Yeah, the pole saw.

I was walking down this road here. Saw her jump out of the car. And it's the milk bar here. I jumped in the back seat of the car. And the car was directly across the road, so I could see her from inside the car in there. What caused you to select her, is it at that time? Just that go feeling. So what happened then?

And then she came out. While I was crouched down, I got hear of footsteps coming from the class of the car. And she hopped in the car, but she didn't see me in the back. And she went to do a U-turn and pulled out the gun that I had. Just as she was doing that turn. She kept going straight into this wall. Paul then describes killing Fremes before detailing what happened after. I dragged her about a meter into the trees.

And she was lying against the fence. And I broke off two branches off the nearest tree. And I hopped back in the car again. I adjusted the seat to match my height. She was on smaller than me. And in the back madness street. Why the madness street? It wasn't too close, wasn't too far from home.

He buried Debbie Fremes purse along the bike track where he later attacked Natalie Russell. He dug the purse up for detectives when they did the walkthrough of the crime scenes later on. When asked why he killed Debbie Fremes, his reply was, I just wanted to. Paul then details the murder of Natalie Russell. What can you tell me about this? I went up there earlier that day and cut the holes in the fences. When did you use to cut the holes in the fences?

Our suppliers. I stood here and watched Natalie Russell walk around the corner. And I went through this hole and waited behind the trees there. Until I saw a walk pass here and heading that way. And when she got about 10 metres down the track here, I came out of the fence. As we were walking along here, are you still maintaining that distance behind her? No, I was getting closer each time. I walked along the grass like this and made a sound.

So you wouldn't be hurt? Yeah. I was armed with a red hand of knife. Where did that come from? In my place. Is it all you had? Just a red hand of knife. Oh, and a leather strap.

You would have found it at the scene. Two pieces. What was that used for? Streamer. What was that for? It was a strap off a pair of addon to those later on. I grabbed it here around the mouth. Left hand, like this.

I dragged it through here. Which one do you want to cut it for? Same reason as before. No, I've always wanted to kill. Since when? Since I was about 14. After the murder, he walked back down the track towards his car, and he actually saw the police there checking it out.

He casually made his way out of the track and walked down Sky Road, away from the police. They were that close. As you can hear from the interviews, Paul displayed zero emotion and zero remorse. That never changed. He simply said he always wanted to kill, and was just waiting for the right opportunity.

As the interview was taking place, other police were searching his flat. They found a hat with blood on it, a large homemade knife, and a long cord with two knots tied at each end. The cord looked like it had hair on it. In his car, they found the fake gun he had made, another large knife, and a pair of pliers.

Each pair of pliers leaves a distinctive mark, much like a fingerprint, and they were able to later match the pair of pliers they found in Paul's car, as being the ones used to cut the hole in the fence at the crime scene of Natalie Russell. Remember back at the start of the story, Donna Vaines had a place breaking into, and her cats were killed.

A death threat was written in blood on her wall. She then moved to a sister Trisha's place, and Trisha's neighbour Julia had also experienced a terrifying break-in, where her throat was cut in all of her photos, and her engagement dress was slashed. They were comforted by a male neighbour, who said whoever did it was a sicko, and he would look out for them.

Well, that was Paul Daniel. He lived next door to Trisha Vaines. He admitted to committing both of those break-ins. He freely said that he went to Donna's place that night with the sole intention of killing her, but she wasn't home, so he killed her cats instead. The reason he gave, he hated Donna and Trisha. It was through Trisha, his neighbour, that he met Donna,

and learnt that she was home alone most nights. That's why he targeted her. The reason why he hated them wasn't given. Donna was so fearful that she moved out of her unit, not realising she moved next door to the person responsible. The feelings obviously weren't mutual, because after Paul's arrest, this is what Trisha had to say. He was the nicest and most considerate person I ever met.

I could not believe it when I heard the news. I still find it difficult to accept. He was cool, calm and collected. He seemed quiet and subdued, and often kept to himself. Another one of Paul's neighbours had this to say. I just can't believe that the charges had been laid against him. He seemed the nicest of people. Paul Daniel was charged with three murders,

Elizabeth Stevens, Debbie Freem and Natalie Russell. He was also charged with the abduction of Rosa Toth. Paul plead guilty, never trying to fight the charges. While awaiting sentencing, he was visited by many doctors and psychologists trying to find answers. What they found was that Paul Daniel was a rare breed of serial killer, murdering his victims at random without motive, simply because he had always wanted to.

He had always felt like killing, and he could no longer suppress his urges. He was able to describe his crimes without a flicker of emotion. They found him to be extremely emotionally disturbed, but not legally insane. He was diagnosed as having a sadistic personality disorder, demonstrated by a steady pattern of cruel, demeaning and aggressive behaviour since early adulthood.

He appeared amused by the psychological and physical suffering he inflicted on his victims. There was in an interview with a psychologist that Daniel mentioned his favourite movie was a horror movie called The Stepfather, and that's where he got the idea to slash his victims' throats, because it seemed defective. Daniel did try and claim that one of his older brothers had sexually abused him when he was younger, but this claim was strongly denied by the brother and by his entire family.

Daniel was sentenced in Melbourne's Supreme Court on the 20th of December 1993. He was given three life sentences with no parole period, the judge saying he was a danger to society for which nothing could be done. Daniel shared no remorse, and his only regret appeared to be the fact he was arrested. Eleven days later, Daniel lodged an appeal against his sentence on the grounds that it was excessive, and that the sentencing judge should have given him a minimum term of imprisonment. The appeal was heard in the Supreme Court in July 1994.

Three judges heard the appeal, and they came to a majority verdict, two to one. Overruling the trial judge's decision, they granted Daniel a non-paral period of 30 years, meaning he could be released in seven years' time when he is 51 years old. When given his non-paral period, Daniel said, I will become a better person and I will not re-offend. That's my promise to God as well as to the people of Melbourne. But he still never said sorry for what he had done,

or showed a shred of remorse. Daniel now identifies as a woman. Daniel has applied to have gender reassignment surgery. That request was rejected. Daniel has also applied to wear makeup and other beauty products in prison. That request was also rejected. Years later, Daniel wrote this in a letter from prison. I put the pieces together like this.

A. Born feeling like the other sex. B. Growing up interested in female things. C. Fearing adulthood as a male. D. Having to suppress my feelings. E. Committing these crimes to try to destroy those feelings. F. Living now with the acceptance of those feelings. Daniel continues, I committed those disgusting crimes not because I ever hated woman kind,

but because I never really felt that I was male. Unfortunately for me, I used the word hate when police interviewed me. Because hate was the only emotion I thought could correctly identify with my confused identity. In 2012, Daniel was interviewed by police in relation to four prison rapes that had occurred on fellow inmates. No charges ever followed from what I've been able to find. Daniel had experienced the urge to kill from a young age. Just 14 years old. And had been following women around for years.

Just waiting for the right time.