True Crime All The Time - Mark Valera

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

Mark Valera claims that his father Jack Van Krevel abused him while he lived at home. By the age of 19, Mark had moved out of the home and changed his last name to Valera. The hatred he felt toward his father grew and he took it out by murdering two men, David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell. Join Mike and Gibby as they head to Wollongong, Australia to talk about teenage murderer Mark Valera. Valera later told police that he believed both O'Hearn and Arkell were homosexuals and pedophiles and he was intent on stopping them from ever hurting anyone again. He blamed the murders on the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. But, the saga of Mark Valera doesn't end there. His sister, Belinda, would later hire one of Mark's friends to kill their father. She said that Jack had started abusing her daughter and she was determined to put an end to it.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

everyone and welcome to episode 223 of the true crime all the time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime Mike Gibson. Give me what's going on? Hey man. I'm doing good about you. I'm doing great. Good. I'm excited about the episodes that we have on tap, this one that we're recording now. But we also have one out right now on true crime all time unsolved. We're talking about the 2008 unsolved murder of Heather Walker in our hometown of of Dayton, Ohio. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, it's an interesting story. It is. This essentially happened in our backyard, and it's not a case that you and I were really all that familiar with. But as soon as we found out about it, we were like, oh, we got to do that. We were. And we were right on it. We continue to see some great Patreon support.

Let's give some shoutouts. We had a duniken. Hey, a dunnican. Allison mayor. Hey, Allison. Brian Miller. What's up, Miller? Austin Kayer jumped out to our highest level.

Kaya. Robin Villicchio. Valiqueo. Or Valicao. I'm not sure. Yeah. Go a couple different ways. Sure.

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Emily Arnbrister jumped out of their highest level. Hey, Emily. Kimberly Fisitalia. Fisitaiaia. Luba Witsnitsnitschaya. Man, where are you getting these names that, man? I'm not making them up, man. These are our Patreon folks.

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What's up, Jill? Susan Brown. Hey, Susan. And Lisa Marinas. Hey, Lisa. So that's a lot of great new support. We appreciate it. And then if we go back into the vault, Gibbs.

This week we selected Rebecca Hirschoff. Well, thank you, Rebecca. Been with us a long time. We appreciate all the support that we get so much. We had some great PayPal donations as well from Aki Coxhead. Hey, Coxhead. Shreda V. Vija Ravaden.

It's Vija Yavann. Okay. It's one of those. One of those two's got to be it, right? Right. Lori Peterson. Hey, Lori. Catherine Allie.

What's up, Allie? So thank you all as well. So before we start, Gibbs, we have to give a huge shout out to friend of the show, Ali Watt, for her help in the research and writing for this episode. We're headed to Australia to talk about teenage murderer Mark Valera. We have to start out talking about Wollongong. It's a coastal city in New South Wales on the east coast of Australia. It's about 68 kilometers or 42 miles south of the state's.

capital of Sydney. And it's fun to say. It is fun to say. Yeah. Now, you would think it's pronounced Wollongong. You would think. But I've been told that it's Wollongong. So I'm going with that. The third most populated city in the state. And it's the 10th most populated in Australia. It's known for its steel industry and amazing beaches. Like a good beach, mate. I know you do. Yeah. You also like to throw a good shrimp on the Barbie. I know that. I do. I do. Get a shrimp on a Barbie. But this is a popular tourist destination for Sydney residents looking to escape the big city for the coast. And it's rich with sporting traditions and events.

Unfortunately in recent years, it has also become known for a number of extremely violent and brutal murders. So let's get a little background on Mark Valera. Mark Valera was born in Wollongong on April 24th, 1979. to Jack Van Crevel and Elizabeth Carroll. He was actually born Mark Jack Van Crevel, but he legally changed his name to Mark Valera when he was a teenager. And we'll get into the reasoning for that later in the episode. But I think to avoid confusion,

I'm just going to call him Mark Valera because to call him anything else and flipping back and forth would be confusing. Yeah, it'd get me confused. And that's hard to confuse me. Yeah, that's tough to do. Not long after Mark was born, his parents had a second child, a daughter named Belinda. Elizabeth left the family when the children were very young, leaving Jack to raise his young family by himself.

After his mother left, Mark's family lived on Centenary Street in Albion Park, a suburb of Wollongong for much of the 1980s and 90s. and really by all accounts they lived a seemingly normal existence. Jack Van Crevel was a builder and reportedly earned a good living, constructing brick veneers on the new neighborhoods spilling south down the coast from the city. Jack did everything he could to give Mark and Belinda a decent life. When the kids were young, he cut short his work hours so he could pick them up from school. He constantly agonized Gibbs about

whether or not he was doing the right thing with his children. He worried about his son's grades and sought outside help, even paying for private tutors. He enrolled in parenting courses, hoping that he could improve the communication between himself and his son. So I think based on that, you would think, all right, this guy, Jack is a good guy. He's really trying to be a good father. Sure.

He's trying to connect with his kids. and he's trying to make sure that they're healthy, mentally and physically. Sure. But as Mark Valera got older and began to run with the wrong crowd, he started to hate his father. Kind of turned against him, too. Yeah, he did. He left school at the age of 16 and began working as what's known as a dish pig.

I guess this is a term. Yeah. An Australian term, I'm assuming, for a dishwasher. Well, I was a dishwasher at a restaurant once, so I can understand that terminology. How'd that go? Didn't go well at all. Did not enjoy that. Not fun?

Not fun. It doesn't look like a lot of fun. Personally, I don't like washing my own dishes at home. I don't think I'd like washing hundreds and hundreds of dishes for six, seven, eight hours at a stretch. I mean, I was a kid, but also when you do that job and the whole kitchen setup at a restaurant, you are like the lowest level person in that kitchen. that moment. Oh, so you're going to get told to do whatever. You got it. And you have to do that. And yeah. Yeah. So you're washing the dishes and cleaning the toilets, man. And sometimes. Not in that order. Yeah. What's that smudge on my dish? By the age of 19, Mark had held a number of

odd jobs. He had a girlfriend and decided to move into a house with his friend, Keith, Schreiber. The house Valeran Shriver lived in was on Bateman Avenue in Albion Park Rail. It was that decision to move into a house on that particular street that would see Valera's life take an unimaginable turn and ultimately result in the deaths of three innocent people. Fifty-nine-year-old David O'Hern was a well-known and well-liked man in his local community. O'Hern was raised in the Wollongong suburb of Warawong. Say those two names three times fast. About 10 times fast. I'd be lucky to get it one time fast. I don't even think I could do it two or three times. Yeah. He was one of eight children. In his early years, he attended the city tech. Kind of like

what we would think of as a technical community college. Yeah. O'Hern traveled the country and lived in various other Australian cities before finally moving home to make Wollongong his best. base. He was a bachelor. He lived alone. He had owned a local corner convenience store for about two years. Never married. Didn't have any children. And it was later revealed by his family that he was homosexual. On Friday, June 12th, 1998, O'Hern was going about his normal routine, closed his store at 5 o'clock in the evening, and made a quick stop at a supermarket, where he was going about his normal routine, closed his store at where he ran into an acquaintance of his elderly mother. Well,

must be nice to leave the store at five o'clock and shut it down. Again, I don't know if that's the same everywhere in Australia. And I don't know if it's the same now as it was then. But you can make the case. And I think it's fairly true that us here in the United States, we work a lot. You know,

stores are open late, which means you've got late shifts. Right. You know, I think about people in other countries taking their siestas or taking their two-hour lunches. And that's kind of normal, right? Many countries, you get a lot more vacation than we get. I'm just thinking the whole, it's a convenience store, but only convenient if you get there

before five. Well, yeah, it's convenient until five o'clock. Yeah. And then it's not. When you really need it, I'm sorry, we're closed. This acquaintance was due to visit his mother the following day. So he told this person to give her his love. He then drove the 10-minute journey home to his apartment on Bateman Avenue.

No one ever saw Mr. O'Hern alive again. The following morning, Saturday, June 13th, local residents were surprised to find the corner store on Canahooker Road closed. It was normally opened by the time the sun came up. So, you know, we kind of said something about it closing early. It sounds like it might have opened pretty early, too. customers would arrive to pick up the weekend newspaper, buy some milk or eggs, and have a chat with the owner. But not that Saturday morning. That cold morning, they were shocked to find the

delivery of newspapers still sitting outside the store's entrance. The lights in the store were off and there was no sign of O'Hern's car nearby. A concerned friend alerted his family who in turn immediately went to David's home to check on him. A group of his family members arrived at the small apartment complex. And I think at first they were relieved when they saw his vehicle in the driveway. Yeah, they probably thought, well, he probably slept in or maybe he was sick and just didn't feel good. But man, at least he's home. Yeah.

One family member knocked on the front door. There was no answer. Another family member banged on a side window. So again, no answer. When a third person tried the handle of the front door, they realized it was unlocked. You know, we've done some cases like this where people will try everything but the actual handle on the door. So I'm just going to say this. Try the door handle first.

Now, see, I wouldn't either because I naturally assume that it's going to be locked. Yeah. Because you know how I am. Sure. I can't go to bed at night until I've checked every. door in the house. And windows. And windows. And even during the day, I, I always am looking to see if the, the little knob is in

the right position to show me that it's locked. Right. I'm constantly checking it. So I think I would do the same exact thing. I'd be looking for a way in. My first thought would not be, hey, let me try this front door. But since it was open, they walked inside. And none of them could have ever imagined the gruesome and horrific site that awaited them. When David's sister Chris entered the living room, she found her brother's body lying on the floor, only steps from the front door. And it was obvious.

He had been murdered. Not long after they discovered the body, they reached out to police. Police and first responders got to the scene. And they were aware before they even got there that they were responding to what they thought was going to be a homicide, but even some of the very experienced police officers were not prepared for what they were about to walk into. Well, they probably never seen brutality like this. No, David O'Hern had been bashed. He had been mutilated. I mean, his injuries were sickening. Blood covered the room. And there were a number of crude images drawn on the walls.

he had been decapitated and his head was later found in the kitchen sink. In Gibbs, it was as if it had been purposely positioned to look directly at someone entering the front door. That's freaky. It is freaky. Another disgusting aspect was one of his eyeballs was missing. It was later determined that the killer actually used the corkscrew to remove it. Pretty sick. It's really sick.

I mean, this whole thing is, uh, is, gruesome. And, you know, he said, you know, you talk about this all the time, right? You have these experienced police officers. Yeah. They've probably seen a lot of stuff, a lot of really bad stuff. But how many people have seen this? We're talking about mutilation, decapitation, pulling somebody's eyeball out with a corkscrew. O'Hern's left hand had been dismembered. And it was found just resting on a sofa in the living room. Police later to determine that it was his severed hand that was used to draw the images on the walls. So the killer took his hand and drew that on the wall. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The word Satan had been written next to the archway that led from the living room to the

kitchen and there was a pentagram directly below it. There were a bunch of inverted crosses found on the walls in the main body of the house. But that wasn't where the brutality ended. O'Hern's pants had been pulled down to just below his knees. And his penis had been severely mutilated. There were a number of incisions to his abdomen and a deep wound extended from just above the sternum down to the midpoint of his stomach. So again, just brutal.

Yeah, brutal already. What we've described, but, you know, there's more because, you know, it was the wounds to the abdomen and his mid torso that exposed an even more horrific sight, the shaft of a hammer that had been inserted into his anus. In addition to the mutilation to the penis, parts of his intestines had been removed and a number of sections were found on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. His bow had been removed and was placed on a silver tray next to his feet. I mean, I don't know what else you can do to this to a victim.

This is beyond brutal. I feel nauseated. The pathologist who later performed the postmortem recorded numerous lacerations to the head and a severe fracture to the skull. There were injuries to the left ear, left cheek, left side of the mouth, left side of the forehead, left eyebrow, the right side of the forehead, the right side of the forehead, his right ear, the back of the head, and the top of the head. I'm telling you, this pathologist earned his pay with this case.

Yeah, probably didn't eat that day. No. And maybe for a couple of days after that, it was rough going. O'Hern's left eyeball had also been depressed deeply into his head. The pathologist concluded that it would have taken about 10 to 12 severe blows to the head to produce those kinds of injuries. Clearly there's a lot of rage here. Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt based on the number of blows, how severe they were,

and all the other stuff that this person did to David O'Hern, a lot of rage. Then you have all that satanic stuff going on too, right? Well, yeah, I mean, this is not the 80s. It's the late 90s, but, you know, how can you do a case where, you don't have some type of satanic involvement or at least the illusion that there's some type of satanic activity. Yes. Police also noted a number of bloody objects found around the body and in other rooms of the house.

Several knives and implements either used to mutilate the body or place there with the intent to mutilate the body were found in the living room. Investigators also found a metal saw, a razor blade, and the corkscrew that was used to remove David's eye. A crystal wine decanter was located next to O'Hern's body. It was later ruled to be the murder weapon. It was heavy. It was covered in blood. Based on the wounds on O'Hern's head, police surmised that he had his back to his killer when the decanter was violent. violently smashed into his skull. Well, when you say violently, we're talking 10 to 12 times, according to the coroner.

Yeah, I don't know how you get much more violent than what we've just described. Investigators spent hours in O'Hern's home on that first day. They took hundreds of photographs. They collected, you know, all kinds of pieces of evidence. They interviewed neighbors and a lot of customers who frequented O'Hern's store. but no one really gave them anything. Most of the victim's neighbors said he was a quiet man. He kept to himself.

He adhered to what was really kind of a predictable daily routine. Every day he left the house between 5.30 and 6 o'clock in the morning. And he got home just before 6 p.m. Well, that's because we knew he closed shop at 5 o'clock every day. Yeah. So it sounds like, based on that, The store was probably open, what, Gibbs, six in the morning to five at night. Yeah.

His family was obviously devastated. His sister Sue said that her brother was a real family type of guy. She also said he was the gentlest man that you would have ever met. Well, he was the type of guy that would never raise his voice. He was very loving, very caring brother. Yeah, we've talked about people like this before. And obviously, nobody's going to talk ill. normally of somebody who's died, especially in this manner. But there was a lot of people that said

David O'Hern was the type of guy that if you needed something, he'd be there for you. But aside from being, you know, distraught over his murder, his family couldn't figure out. They couldn't comprehend who could have possibly done this. They said, David had no enemies. This wasn't a guy who, you know, had run-ins with the law. He was pretty much liked by everyone. Yeah. Everyone kind of thought this was a great guy. And police didn't have the answers.

You know, the city wasn't immune to murders and violence, but as we mentioned, right, most of the officers, most of the police had never worked on such a brutal and unspeakable crime. But I think what they theorized early on into the investigation was that they were probably dealing with someone who had committed the murder as a homosexual hate crime.

And I think, you know, go back to some of the injuries that we talked about. You know, obviously the body had been messed with in a sexual type of way. Police thought that the wounds inflicted, they were just too extreme to happen as a result of a robbery or, you know, a home invasion gone wrong. Oh, for sure. This was not your standard crime gone bad scene, you know. No, people get killed in those all the time. Right. Somebody breaks in. They don't realize somebody's home or they do. And their intent on robbing and they're willing to kill. This wasn't that. No. You're not going to decapitate somebody and do all that other disgusting things that occurred in that place. You're just not going to do that. if your main motive is robbery.

Exactly. You're not going to mess around and spend that much time to do all those things. So I get what they're saying from that perspective. The problem detectives ran into was that they didn't have long to investigate this murder because the city was hit with another shocking murder. Hey, T-Cat fans, after the year we've all been through, saving money should be at the top of everyone's resolution list. So if you're still paying tons of money,

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alleged pedophile. Doesn't build well for somebody. No, but it's important to point out. Prior To his political career, Arkell worked in the banking industry and at the Sydney Stock Exchange. He never married and he had no children. In 1965, he became an alderman of the city of Wollongong and then four years later, he was elected deputy mayor. Five years after that, he was elected mayor of the city in 1974. By all accounts, Arkell was a popular mayor known as Mr. Wollongong. He made it his business.

to know everyone in the community. He often stood in the streets chatting with people in the city. And he was reelected three times over 17 years. So, I mean, it's not too hard to come to the conclusion that obviously the guy was pretty popular. Yeah, I think he was one of those type of guys that would always promote the city and the people that lived in the city. And I think he was a pretty effective mayor. You know, from everything that I read, he kind of took the city from a financial, struggling steel mining hub to a bustling and thriving coastal destination.

Well, they do have those beautiful beaches that you and I have talked about visiting one day. Yeah. But Arkell led a secret double life. After he lost the mayorial re-election in 1991, things started to go downhill. He was 56 years old. In 1994, he was accused in the state parliament of sex offenses. So they had this public inquiry and Arkell was called to give evidence relating to claims of a sex pedophilia ring operating within both the police force and sections of parliament. But he pleaded illness and didn't appear in court.

So, I mean, you've got a lot going on here. First, you have a sex pedophile ring. Right. But it's alleged that it's taking place by members of the court. the police, members of parliament. That's not good. No, I mean, obviously, it would never be good, but now you're getting into the ranks of elected officials. But it didn't matter that he didn't show up, right? The damage to his reputation was done. And I guess Gibbs, he had been suspected for some time of crimes against

children. And now it was pretty much exposed. He was accused of enticing young boys to the state parliament's dining room and having sex with them in his office. On May 1st, 1997, Arkell was arrested by police officers and charged with 29 sex offenses involving four victims. Three weeks later, he appeared in a local court charged with supplying a minor with alcohol in order to commit indecent assault, having sexual intercourse without consent, and what is known in Australia as buggery, what we here in the States would call sodomy. I think they use that word buggery in a lot of different countries.

But I think it has different meanings in some of them. Oh, maybe, maybe. I mean, words have different meanings in different places. Right. But when you tell somebody to bugger off, I mean, basically what are you saying? Yeah. You know, right. You hear that in different countries.

Especially Great Britain. Yeah, Great Britain. UK comes to mind. Yeah. These crimes were alleged to have occurred between 1978 and 1984 while Arkell was the mayor. Position of power. And while he was eventually acquitted of child sex offenses in early 1998, detectives continued to investigate allegations of decades of child abuse and sexual misconduct.

But Arkell would never face the inside of a courtroom. His accusers would never see the justice that they were looking for. Just two weeks after the murder of David O'Hern, the former Wollongong mayor faced the same fate as the shopkeeper. It was Saturday, June 26, 1998, when housekeeper Maria Subbotic arrived at 68-year-old Arkell's Reserve Street home in West Wollongong. This is about 16 minutes from... where O'Hern lived and where his body was found. She was there to deliver some bread, milk, and a newspaper. And I guess this was something that she did regularly outside of her normal work hours.

So it would be safe to say that Arkell would have been expecting her arrival sometime that morning. Now, what I found interesting Gibbs is that, you know, in the research, it said, Arkell didn't live in the main house. He actually had a garage. that he'd turned into, you know, what we would call here, like a mother-in-law suite. Right. I saw some terms that said a granny flat, but it was at the rear of the house. That's where he lived.

He really only used the kitchen in the main house. Other than that, it normally went untouched. It's kind of like you. You don't leave this studio area besides when the dinner bell rings. Exactly. Or I need to go to the kitchen. That's it. Or it's time for bed.

Yeah. When the housekeeper approached the front door, nothing looked out of place. The door was shut. She didn't hear any noises coming from inside. But as she entered the house, she was met with a startling and truly sickening scene. Lying on the floor beside the bed was Frank Arkell. He was on his back and his legs were stretched out. His face was unrecognizable, covered in blood. I mean, it was to the point where it was almost completely red. I mean, this is sickening to think about, but you know, you kind of have to give this full description to understand the gravity of it. His head had been brutalized and it was resting in a very large pool of blood. Three tiepins had been placed in his face. There was one in his left cheek, one in the corner of his left eye and one in the eyelid of his right eye. Just as they were in the case of the O'Hern murder, police got there quickly to Arkell's residence and news of the former mayor's murder traveled quickly around the city.

Investigators later determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head as well as ligature strangulation. His head had been severely beaten with a glass ashtray as well as a wooden lampstand and a splinter of wood was found in his neck. He had been strangled with the cord of the nightstand lamp. And both that cord and a leather belt were found wrapped tightly around his neck. In addition to the large pools of blood on and around his body, there was also a lot of blood on the tile floor of the bathroom and in the doorway of the bathroom.

Police were fairly certain that Arkell had been in that area of the property during the attack. They also found a pair of bloodstained men's boots and sweatpants at the foot of the bed. The sweatpants had been turned inside out, as if they had been taken off in a hurry. According to the housekeeper, a pair of his pants were missing, but she couldn't verify if the bloodstained items belonged to her former employer. Police and crime stoppers aired a TV commercial featuring the items of clothing in the hopes that someone would recognize them and come forward.

The same pathologist who conducted David O'Hern's post-mortem conducted the examination on the body of Frank Arkell. Yeah, and this guy had a rough few weeks here. Yeah. Two vicious murders. The pathologist found that there were 34 separate injuries to Arkell's head. His right ear was crushed and he also had some severe lacerations to his face. base and jaw. His teeth were fractured, as was his hyoid bone. Arkell's ribs were broken, and his left jugular vein was punctured. Well, this was a very brutal attack. Bottom line.

Yeah, and I think it's safe to say that it's an attack that, you know, most likely took some bit of time. Seems a little personal. It does. It seems personal. Also some tie-ins a little bit that I see with the first attack, not the mutilation and some of that stuff, but the eyes. That's what jumped out of me, right? Yeah. Messing with the eyes. Well, in the first one, you had the crystal glass as a weapon to the head. This time you have a glass ashtray to the head.

So maybe a little bit of a similarity there as well. I think very quickly, police concluded that Arkell most likely knew his attacker. So you mentioned it Gibbs, rough couple of weeks for the pathologist, but think about the news. Too brutal, kind of eerily similar attacks in the same city, just a couple of weeks apart. These are the types of murders that set communities into panic mode. Oh, for sure. Because you have people who start asking the question. You know, is there a serial killer on the loose?

And is this person targeting homosexual men? Some people even started to question whether David O'Hern was possibly somehow involved in the pedophilia ring that Arkell had been wrapped up in in the years prior to the murders. I think the other possibility that police looked at was that Arkell had been murdered in an act of revenge. Could the killer be a former victim of Arkell? Police Sergeant Russell Oxford said that Arkell's victims would be looked into thoroughly and interviewed if necessary. But his opinion Gibbs was that the investigation went far beyond the sex abuse charges that Arkell was going to be tried on later that year. But police didn't have to wait all that long to find out the answers to these two murders. On Wednesday, September 30th, 1998, a little over three months after the deaths of David O'Hern and Frank Arkell, a young man walked calmly into the Wollongong police station and confessed to both murders.

He told police, he, quote, just wanted to kill someone. That young man was 19-year-old Mark Valera. Police took him into custody and they began interviewing him. According to detectives, Mark was pretty calm. He was fairly articulate and he was specific and seemed to know exactly what he was doing in confessing to the crimes. Police asked him why he was confessing. And he said that it seemed like the right thing to do.

Just seems like the right thing. According to Mark Valera, the catalyst behind the murders was his father, Jack Van Crevel. Valera claimed that his father had sexually abused him throughout his childhood and that in killing O'Hern and Arkell, who he knew were gay and he believed were pedophiles, he was protecting other children from the same fate. This is what he thought. This is what he said. He also told authorities that he had changed his name from Van Crevel to Valera due to the deep hatred he had for his. father. Yeah, and we talked about it early in the episode, how that hatred grew over years. And this is why. We did, but we also painted a picture of Jack Van Crevel as kind of this caring father.

So there are some things at odds here, right, between what Mark is saying and what I think most people thought about Jack Van Crevel. When discussing the first murder, Valera confirmed that he had lived just a hundred yards from David O'Hern. He knew of the shopkeeper and he had seen him driving home from time to time, but he'd never spoken to him before he killed him. He said on the night of the murder, he knocked on O'Hern's door, claiming to be looking for a room to rent. And O'Hern invited him inside, thinking that Mark Valera might be homeless. Trying to help him out. Yeah. This is a guy trying to do a good deed. According to Mark, the two set on the couch, they drank orange juice, and they discussed some local hostels that could possibly have provided Valera with shelter.

It was when O'Hern turned his back to take the empty glasses to the kitchen that Valera attacked. He claimed that he had been propositioned by the victim and that he had suffered a violent flashback to the sexual assault he alleged his father had inflicted on him. In other words, he said he snapped. When asked how many times he struck the victim in the head, he replied, I counted seven, eight, nine, ten until he was dead. He said he then went upstairs to look for valuables to steal and that it was after that search that he went back downstairs and collected the items that he subsequently used to mutilate the body. He described in very specific detail, the manner of the mutilation of the body, and how he'd used the severed hand to draw the

pentagram and inverted crosses on the walls of the living room. Valera then moved on to describing the murder of Frank Arkell. He told police that he knew of the former mayor and described him as a very, very horrible man. He said he didn't like Arkell and all the nasty things that he had done to kids. He said he had read about him and had heard about him in the papers in the media. It gives, I think it's important to point out. I mean, there's no doubt this Arkell was thought to have been involved in some very sick stuff.

Yeah. Involving kids. Right. But as far as I could tell, he hadn't gone to trial. He had not been. convicted. But, you know, that stuff gets out in the media. Sure. And that's where Mark Valera read about the charges at least that had been levied against this guy. Mark explained that he had placed a phone call to Arkell's residence from a nearby pay phone and told him that he was

gay and that he wanted to visit with the older man. So he goes to this guy's house under this false pretends, knowing full well that he is going to murder this man. When he arrived at Arkells, the two men spoke for a few minutes before Valera picked up the nightstand lamp and smashed it down on Arkell's head. He said he also used the ashtray to beat Arkell around the face. And he claimed that he struck him as many as 40 times. 40 times. Rage. That's rage, man. But for Mark it was justified what he was doing. He was stopping this very bad, nasty man from ever hurting anybody again and punishing him for what he had done to kids.

Yeah, I think in his mind, he was doing that. And he was also, I don't know, Gibbs, maybe venting his frustration, his anger that he held towards his father. Yeah. For what he has alleged was this sexual abuse. Valera said that Arkell had tried to protect himself and it crawled away towards the bathroom. And that's when he used the lamp court to strangle him until he stopped moving. He told police that he kicked him a few times in the face and ribs, even after he knew that this guy was dead. Mark said that it was after that point that he pushed the tie pins into the dead man's face and that he also tried to push a fork into his neck.

A fork. Stick a fork at me. I'm done. Well, I guess. I'm not saying a fork can't be used as a weapon, but it's not the most, uh, what's the word I'm looking for here, Gibbs? Efficient. Efficient. Yeah. I try not to fork around. Yeah. Kind of hard to stick a fork through somebody's neck, I would think. It would be tough. Mark said that when he realized his clothes were covered in blood, he left his boots and sweatpants behind. And he stole a pair of, Arkell's pants, which he wore when he left the scene. Mark Valera was charged with two counts of first degree murder relating to the deaths of David O'Hern and Frank Arkell.

He stood trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court on July 12, 2000. And he pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter on the partial defense of provocation and abnormality of the mind. So, you know, maybe a little bit. of different verbiage than what we're used to hearing. Right. But it makes sense. It does, but the prosecutor and the courts didn't accept the plea.

And so they went forward with the trial. It was during the trial that Valera continued his claims that his father had sexually abused him during his childhood and that it was because of that abuse that Valera had ultimately committed the two murders. Mark's younger sister Belinda testified at the trial and while she didn't technically confirm the abuse allegations, she did say that when they were teenagers, she observed her father repeatedly enter her brother's room at night wearing only a bathroom. You know, so I took from that Gibbs that she never actually saw sexual physical contact. Right. But that she was saying, you know,

he did go into his bedroom a lot, a lot, wearing only a bathroom. On August 8, 2000, the jury found Valera guilty of the murders of O'Hern and Arkell. Mark was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. During the sentencing, the judge said that the risk that Valera would reoffend was a real one. And that given the heinousness of the crimes, he had to impose. life imprisonment. After the trial, police later said that while it gave them no great pleasure to see a young person go away for the rest of their days, they felt justified by all the hard work that was put into the investigation and that they hoped it gave some relief and finality to the

families involved. Australia doesn't have the death penalty. So this was the most severe punishment the judge could hand out. And unlike what we're used to here in, the United States, this is not a sentence that I think Australian courts hand down all that often. And at 21 years old, Valer was the youngest person ever given this kind of sentence in New South Wales. He joined Martin Bryant and Catherine Knight, two killers that I know our audiences will remember, who also will never see the outside of a prison. he is currently being incarcerated at the high risk management center or supermax prison at the Goldburn Correctional Center about 206 kilometers or 128 miles southwest of Sydney.

Mark did appeal a sentence and his lawyer said that his young age, miserable early life, the abuse inflicted by his father and the fact that he surrendered to police should have been taken into consideration during his sentencing, but all of his appeals were quickly rejected. So he'll be in prison for the rest of his life. Unless there's some unforeseen change, he will. Now, normally, this is where you and I would be wrapping up a T-CAD episode, right? This is the end of the story. Right.

Normally, Mark Valer is in prison. He's doing his time. but there's a lot more to the Valera saga. Because in the early hours of Friday, August 18th, 2000, only 10 days after her brother was sentenced to life in prison, Belinda Van Kreble woke up to some noises coming from the room next to hers in the house that she shared with her father, Jack, and two-year-old daughter Tia. According to Belinda, who was 19 years old at the time,

These were weird noises. And she later referred to them as sounding like someone getting killed. That's a very specific type of noise if you've never heard it before. Because most people have not heard it. Exactly. So to make a statement that said, I heard what sounded like someone getting killed. Well, what does that sound like? Yeah.

Because most people don't know. No. And then on top of that, instead of getting out of bed to check on her father, or calling the police, she did nothing. She continued to lay in the bed with her child, even after her daughter asked her, what's happening to Poppy? And apparently she later got up,

turned on a movie for her daughter. She had a cigarette, had a drink. But she didn't have them by herself, right? She shared them with the former housemaid of her brother, who we've mentioned, Keith Schreiber. And then a few hours later,

Belinda went to the police station and reported her father's death to police. She told them that someone had invaded the house and killed him. But police were instantly suspicious. I mean, for one thing, Belinda had been pretty vocal about her hatred for her father and his actions that she believed were the reasons why her brother Mark was in prison. I thought it was kind of strange, Gibbs, that the two were still living in the same house. Yeah, I did too. After hearing all the stories. Yeah, after hearing, you know, her testify and not maybe she didn't have any other options at that time. I don't know.

Right. But I don't think it took police long to piece together what had happened that night. According to them, it was Keith Schreiber who had murdered Jack Van Crevel. Shortly after midnight on the 18th, Schreiber arrived at the Van Crevel home and made his way to a window that Belinda had. left open for him, he picked up an axe that she had left by the garage and then he entered the house through the open window. He made his way back to Jack's bedroom and found himself standing above Jack's bed. He held the axe in his hand and he said, you fucking pedophile bastard, you'll never molest another kid again. Then he viciously attacked Jack with the axe,

repeatedly striking him in the head, the neck, the chest. The first blows didn't kill him. Shriver turned on the light to get a better look. And that's when Van Krevel got a look at his attacker. I mean, he knew who this guy was, right? Yeah. He had been the roommate of his son. He screamed for mercy and he begged Shriver to leave him alone.

Well, Keith did leave him alone, but not for very long. No, not for long. He left the room, returned. turned with a knife and a fire poker. And he continued his brutal attack. It was no doubt violent. And it certainly wasn't quick. I mean, this was something that, again, kind of like Mark's attacks, it took a while. Well, it's because Keith decided to carve up Jack's body with a knife. Yeah, it was brutal. Jack's neck was almost severed. And there was obviously a lot of blood spattered on the ceiling, on the walls. he had been stabbed a total of 16 times and he had been struck 25 times.

When asked by police who she thought may have killed her father, Belinda Van Krevel claimed she thought maybe Schreiber would quote, do it for Mark. But she also thought that he didn't have the nerve to do something like this. But police weren't thrown by Belinda's attempts to kind of move their attention away from Keith and by extension her right right because she's obviously involved in this Keith was arrested at the local train station the next day and when he was taken into custody he admitted what he had done he said Gibbs I'd done it happy just like that yeah as they continued questioning him Shriver said that he felt depressed and angry and felt that

Jack should have paid for what he had done to Mark and Belinda. He claimed that it was Belinda, who had prompted him to kill her father. She offered him $2,000 to carry out the murder. According to Keith, Belinda had told him that her father was molesting her daughter, just as he had done to Mark, and she wanted him dead. He told police, quote, well, he won't be doing anything more to Tia. When they asked if Belinda was involved in planning the murder, Shriver said, yeah, I know she wanted, she wanted him done. Yeah, now, depending on where you sit with this, right, you could definitely see why he did what he did. He loved his friend. He loved his girlfriend. And of course, he loved Tia, the daughter of Belinda.

And he didn't want to see her hurt anymore. And he didn't like the fact that his girlfriend and his best friend, Mark, had been hurt. So that you can see where the rage, the anger, came from when he did what he did. I get that. And then you look at the $2,000 on top of it. Mm-hmm. And then I think you have to talk about, you have to separate the abuse that Mark alleged. Yes.

And then the abuse that now Belinda is alleging. Right. Because I do think Gibbs, there are people that will make the claim that Belinda used Keith to get rid of her father. And she used Mark's alleged abuse to dovetail in the abuse of her daughter. Sure, that was her motivation. To fire Keith up. He was already fired up.

He was already mad. Yes. And now you're just adding fuel on top of the fire. We don't know if this is true. No, we don't. This alleged abuse. But I think you will have people who will make the claim that, well, if you want to get rid of your dad, this is the way to go about it. Yeah, he's already upset about what your dad did

to Mark. Now, tell him that he's doing the same thing to your daughter. That might just be what he needs to be pushed in that direction. Keith Schreiber pleaded guilty to the murder of Jack Van Kreble and was sentenced to 16 years in prison with a non-parole period of 12 years. The judge in his case told the court that while Schreiber would benefit from a lengthy parole period, he believed the term set would allow for Schreiber to be rehabilitated. He also believed that the gravity of the crime did not constitute a longer non-parole period. Schreiber served his sentence at the Lithgow Correctional Center about 2,000 kilometers northwest of Wollongong. In 2003, Belinda Van Kreville pleaded guilty to soliciting Schreiber

to kill her father and was sentenced to six years in prison. In May of 2000, thousand she walked free from prison having served four years so gives as we're wrapping up this case right the lives of everyone involved in these terrible crimes have varied since 1998 valera is still serving his sentence he's most likely will never see the light of day it seems as though shriver's been paroled couldn't really find anything definitive about his release date right Belinda hasn't really shied away from the spotlight, as you would think someone in her position would do. In 2014, she was sentenced to two years in jail for stabbing her boyfriend in the neck, leg, and arm. Well, that will get you back in prison.

It will. It will. A year later, she was interviewed for Australia's 60 minutes. And she was asked whether the death of her father was worth losing her daughter and her freedom. and she said, without a doubt, it was worth it. So that tells you something. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what it tells me. I mean, she believes that her father was such a bad man that she was willing to give up both

her daughter and her freedom. Yeah. So did she give it up? And she's glad because now her daughter will never be touched by her father? I think that's the toughest part of this whole case is the alleged abuse. And like I said, I think, you know, separate the alleged abuse on Mark from the alleged abuse on Tia. There's no way to confirm, right, whether or not either one of those happened. If they did, obviously, they're both horrible.

But like I said, I do think there are a lot of people that believe Belinda used a story of alleged abuse on Tia to fuel Keith Schreiber into murdering her. father because she was mad. Yeah. upset about what it happened to Mark. Maybe there was a financial gain in there somewhere. I don't know. Most likely there would be. So while there's a lot of finality in this case, to me, there are still questions that haven't been answered. And I don't think now they can ever be answered because the parties that would have the answers are dead. Yeah. I mean, mainly Jack. I mean, Jack. I mean, Jack. dead, the deaths of David O'Hern and Frank Arkell are still remembered by many in the Wollongong area today. You know, and even though they weren't as publicized as some of the murders

committed by Martin Bryant or backpacker murderer Ivan Malat, they still haunt those involved in the case, almost 23 years later. To me, Gibbs, this is a fascinating story. Horrible. Yeah. And you can use a bunch of other adjectives along those lines, but there are some very intriguing points to this story. You know, just like we said, most of our stories would end with Mark Valera going to prison. Right. But this one doesn't. All of a sudden, you know, his sister gets involved, ends up getting his former roommate to

kill her father. Yeah. And I just found that, you know, unbelievable. It's hard to get away from the viciousness of the murders that Mark committed. I mean, the descriptions and the acts, they were extremely brutal. For me, I walk away from this thinking, how bad was it from Mark? What did he go through with his dad that made him take that out on those other two individuals? It had to be pretty bad for him to want to act out like he did.

I would have to agree with you. And again, you have to use the word alleged. Right. Because, you know, none of that was ever proven with Mark and or Tia, either one. So you have to say alleged. But based on what Mark has said, you know, that's what fueled him to do what he did. But that's it for the case of Mark Valera. Gibbs, we've got some voicemails.

You want to check those out? Yes, hear him. Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Just stumbled across your podcast. not fairly long ago. I drive a commercial trash truck for a living, so I'm always looking for new contacts and really thoroughly enjoy your guys' show. I haven't been about half the episode, listening to them daily. The question that I had for you is, as I mentioned, I drive a commercial trash truck, and I haven't heard anything yet that is trash-ball. I've kind of been curious since

I started this job about a year ago as, like, sure, it's kind of a morbid thought, but there's got to be bodies in the landfill that it just let through. I mean, you do hear from time and time of bodies being exposed and dumpsters and stuff like that. But I was just curious that in all your guys' knowledge and research, if you've ever heard anything that's kind of associated with a truck or a landfill at the whole site. Well, I appreciate you guys of content and podcast. Great. Keep it up. Thanks, Pat. Yeah, to me, Gives, sadly, I have to think there are a lot of bodies buried in landfills all across this country. Across this world, man. All across the world. I'm struggling to think of any. specifically, but I know we've had some episodes and maybe he just hasn't gotten to them.

Right. Where bodies were found in landfills or ended up there. A few. Yeah, there definitely have been a few. I think the sad part is that there's probably a lot that have never been discovered and probably never will be because of how landfill works. Right. Compos.

Hey, guys. This is Gwen calling from Omaha, Nebraska. I just wanted to tell you that I, some little across your podcast, a few weeks ago on the Amazon music app, and I cannot stop listening. It is my favorite true crime podcast. I listen to it all the time when I'm at home, in the car, at work. I love the information that you guys provide,

and the dynamic and banter between the two of you is such a nice change to all of the things you talk about. So when you joke about things and make me laugh, it kind of helps get through all the weird things and the hard stuff. I just want to say, keep up the good work and keep cranking out new podcasts and keep your own time ticking. Thanks, guys. Awesome. Yeah, we really appreciate that. Omaha. Omaha. Do you watch that on Sundays growing up, Mutual Omaha, Wild Kingdom? Yeah, I did. I love that show. Yeah, me too. Very informative.

I just, I don't know why I thought it probably has nothing do with Omaha, Nebraska. I don't know. I just remember growing up, I thought that was the coolest show back of the day, man. Yeah, there wasn't much else on. You couldn't see wild animals back in the day. Yeah. But we appreciate the voicemail. We do. Because we do try to lighten episodes where we can.

An episode like this was kind of tough. It is tough. This episode, the details of the murders were so brutal that, you know, some are easier to find places to riff and make little jokes here and there. Obviously, not at the expense of victims or anything like that. And I really wanted to use my West Coast Australian voice, but it just didn't seem appropriate. Great. Didn't? Mm-mm. Hi, Monick. Hi, Gibby.

My name is Haley, and I'm from England. I'm just giving you a quick call, so thank you very much for all the support that you've given me enjoying this pandemic. I work for the NHS in the community. And all I can say is every time I go to a patient's call, and I come out and I sit in the car, no matter how hard it is, I know I've got Kirby and Gibby there to try and help, even with the hard call. Also, you have another fan. I actually have a cat, we call T-Cats.

And every time I play you guys indoors when I'm caught around around in the house, she will come running in to whatever room I'm in, and she'll sit down and close her eyes and listen as you talk. However, she's not a big Gibby fan, because she'll listen when Kirby's talking, but the minute Gibby opens her open it says up something. She opens her eyes and gives my phone a very mean look. But aside, I have some cases for you guys.

What is the monster of Worcester. Not sure if you've done him before, but he's definitely a very interesting one. Anyway, thank you for all the time that you do. Keep growing fun-shicking. Well, we finally found someone Gibbs that is not a Ghibi fan. It happens to be a cat, but it was eventually going to happen. You knew it. It was going to have to happen.

It was inevitable. T-Cat does not like me, which just sounds strange to say. It does. Because T-Cat loves you, man. T-Cat loves it. Just not that T-Cat. Hi, Mike and Mike. I love you guys.

I made my day to be on the air. Thanks for being humble and for your fans on the ear. No, Gibby. I don't feel fries. I'm painfully honest in all places have hamper-proof packaging. I ordered some merch that I'm very happy with. I've heard some of the cases before, but you really do your research and I appreciate that. I've learned some things. I'm a trained baker. Let me know if you want some bakers. And by the way, this Natalie from Indianapolis. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking. Bye. Well, that was Natalie from Indianapolis.

And of course, we like bake goods. Who doesn't? From a trained baker or a non-trained baker. I don't care if you can bake or not. I'm still eating baked goods. Exactly. But if you're a trained baker, that's even better. You're setting the bar pretty high.

Yeah, we had no mailbag this week, Gibbs. So that's it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.