Casefile Revisited: Mr Cruel

For early access and dad-free episodes, check out our Patreon, Apple Premium and Spotify subscription memberships. Our episodes deal with serious and often-distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode involves crimes against children and won't be suitable for all listeners. A mummy cries for her little girl who never came back home. Now a family lives in a shattered world, straining the family home. Are her cries of help ringing in your ears? Her eyes pleading for release. Do you feel her mounting fears? 'Cause only you can give relief. Please, Mr. Cruel, let her go safely without harm. Please, Mr. Cruel, center back into her family's arms. Please, Mr. Cruel, when you reach deep down inside you and find some good within your soul, let her go back to society, release her from your hold. Please, Mr. Cruel, please, Mr. Cruel, please, Mr. Cruel. On Tuesday, December 27, 1988, John Wills was inside his home on Hillcrest Avenue, Ringwood, 23 km east of Melbourne's central business district. John was having trouble sleeping, so instead of tossing and turning, he decided to stay up and complete a jigsaw puzzle to relax. His wife Julie was in better sleep as were his four young daughters. The Wills family weren't alone that night. There was somebody outside their house watching and waiting. At 5am, John finally switched the lights off and went to bed, curling up next to his wife. 30 minutes later, a man wearing a ski mask and blue overalls broke in through the back door. He walked straight to John and Julie's bedroom. Julie woke to see the man standing over her, pointing a gun. She started screaming and cried out to her daughters to run from the house. The man told Julie to shut up and to stop screaming. He then pointed the gun at John's temple and asked, "Are you going to be a hero?" John shook his head, "No." The intruder made John and Julie life-faced down on their bed, then tied them up with copper wire. He told John that he wanted all of the money in the house. John nodded to the bedside table and to the intruder took a $35 cash that was located there. He then walked out of the bedroom and headed towards the children's room. 10-year-old Sharon Will's, who had been woken by her mother's screams, saw the intruder walk into her room. He spoke to Sharon, calling her by name. He then covered her mouth with masking tape, blindfolded her and picked her up, carrying her out into the night. About 15 minutes later, John and Julie managed to cut the copper wire that the intruder had used to tie them up. John ran to his kid's bedroom to find that Sharon was missing. After discovering that the intruder had cut their phone line, John ran next door and yelled for his neighbors to call the police. Then he began frantically searching nearby yards and streets, hoping that Sharon might have managed to escape the intruder. But his search was in vain. When police arrived, they caught and off the Will's house. The major crime squad was instantly alerted and arrived to take charge of the scene. A search of Ringwood and the surrounding suburbs was conducted, but there was no trace of Sharon and no witnesses were found. Residents of Ringwood were shocked by the abduction, telling the media that their suburb was a quiet place where things like that didn't happen. Sharon was described by neighbors as a quiet well-behaved girl who played several musical instruments. She sang with the Victorian children's choir and had made a television appearance with them just weeks earlier. Because the intruder had demanded money and stolen all available cash from their family, there was initially thought that she might have been kidnapped for ransom. But no ransom demand was made. One neighbor remarked to the age newspaper, "Why look for money here? It's not like it's too rack or temples though, naming some of Melbourne's more affluent suburbs." The police agreed. They were convinced the intruder's primary intention was to abduct Sharon and that he'd tried to conceal that by telling John and Julie he wanted all of the cash in their house. A description of the intruder was circulated, describing him as a white male who was around 20 years old, wearing blue overalls and a black ski mask. As the first day after Sharon's abduction passed, police told her parents that they had to expect the worst. The officer in charge of the case, Detective Chief Inspector Des Johnson, publicly stated, "We're still as much in the dark as we were this morning. The fears are growing all the time." At 11.15pm that night, reports filtered through about a hold on Commodore vacationer sedan that had been driving erratically in Bayeswater about eight kilometers southeast of Sharon's home. The car, which was white with three blue stripes painted along the side, was being driven with its headlights off. As the Commodore turned off one road into another, it nearly collided with a second vehicle whose driver had to swerve and break to avoid a collision. Angered over the incident, the other driver followed the Commodore and pulled up alongside it at a nearby red light. They began yelling at the Commodore's driver, a man who was the only person visible inside the car. The Commodore's driver turned his head and inched forward as though anxious to not be seen. When the lights turned green, the Commodore continued straight for a short distance before turning right into church street, heading towards Bayeswater High School. The other driver didn't manage to take note of the number plate. Less than 45 minutes later, Sharon Wills was spotted wandering outside Bayeswater High School by a passing motorist who pulled over to check if she was okay. The alarm was raised, the police were notified, and Sharon was taken to hospital. She had been held captive for 18 hours, but now she was safe. She detailed the extraordinary lengths her captor had gone to before releasing her in order to avoid detection. He'd thoroughly cleaned both Sharon and himself, even scraping their fingernails and flossing their teeth to remove any potential DNA evidence. He then taped a garbage bag up to Sharon's neck, put a man's shirt over the garbage bag, and placed another garbage bag over her head. Finally ready, he drove her to Orchard Road and let her out of his vehicle near Bayeswater High School. John Wills fronted a press conference where he said he was grateful for Sharon's return, but would never be able to forgive the man responsible. He described how he, his wife and their four daughters had spent the night since Sharon came home, huddled together in the lounge room, too scared to sleep alone. John had also increased his home security in case the intruder returned. Police performed regular surveillance and patrols of their house to ensure this didn't happen. John then added "The whole experience of somebody bursting into your home and tying you up is terrifying. To have your daughter taken and not know where she is, is indescribable. I honestly believe this man has done this before. He came well prepared and covered his tracks. I have run his voice over and over in my mind to try to remember whether I might know him, but I don't." Two teams of detectives were assigned to the case. Detective Chief Inspector Des Johnson told the media that crimes of this nature were often harder to solve than armed robberies or murders. The offender was often a loner who maintains the appearance of normality in his everyday life and wouldn't bow. close about the crime to family or friends. Detective Johnson revealed that Sharon had been kept a blindfolded for the entire 18 hours she was held captive. He remarked, "We can only dread what the man would have done if the girl had pulled off the blindfold and seen his face. It is that close to being a homicide. It is only an extra step." Police distributed pamphlets at residences near Sharon's home and around the area where she was found. They also publicly displayed a car similar to the White Commodore scene in Bay's border immediately prior to Sharon being found. Many members of the public called to report their suspicions and police chased down a number of leads. They even had a few potential suspects in mind, but no arrests were made. These days after the attack on Monday, January 2, 1989, the Victorian State Government announced a $100,000 reward for information about Sharon's abduction that led to an arrest. Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Holiday warned, "Nobody can understand the monstrous nature of this offense or the danger to the community if the offender remains at large. There is a real possibility that there will be a repetition of it." 18 months later on Tuesday, July 3, 1990, 13-year-old Nicola Linus was at home with her 15-year-old sister Fiona. The sisters lived on Monometh Avenue, Canterbury, 17 kilometres west of Sharon's house in Ringwood. Canterbury is an affluent suburb and many of the properties there were worth over a million dollars at the time, a hefty amount for a house in Melbourne in the early 90s. Nicola was described to buy her school principal as one of the best students at their college. The Linus family was quiet and mostly kept to themselves. They had moved to Australia from London four years earlier. Nicola's father Brian Linus was a partner at the major accounting firm Price Waterhouse and he was on succumbent to work at their Melbourne office. By that Tuesday in July, their days in Australia were numbered. Brian's succumbent was ending and the family's bags were packed ready to return to England. Nicola and Fiona were in bed asleep while their parents Brian and Rosemary were out having a farewell dinner with friends. At 11.40pm, a man dressed in dark clothes and a black ski mask forced open a rear window of their house. He crept inside, armed with a knife and a handgun, then made his way to the girls bedroom. He woke them up, threatening to harm them if they didn't cooperate. He tied Fiona up, then said to her, "Tell your father I want $25,000." He directed Nicola into another room and told her to get her school uniform. The intruder put Nicola's uniform and some underwear into a bag before taking the keys to a rental car that Nicola's mother had been driving and Navy Blue Belina sedan. The intruder forced Nicola into the vehicle before driving off. 40 minutes later, Brian and Rosemary returned home to find Fiona tied up and Nicola missing. They immediately called the police. Investigators initially considered whether the abduction might be fake as it was well known that Nicola wasn't keen on going back to England. However, it didn't take long to rule that out. The abduction was very real. Two police officers stood guard at the house and monitored all incoming telephone calls, meeting for any further contact from the kidnapper. He hadn't said how the ransom should be paid or when he would be in touch again. He just simply said, "I want $25,000." Brian and Rosemary made it known to police that they were prepared to pay the ransom, but they needed to know how to do so. At a press conference, Brian Linus pleaded with the public. We would very much like to have Nikki back with us. Whatever can be done to get her back, we would like to be done. Anyone in this room who has children might well understand the stress when you see one of your own family taken away like that. We have to sit and be patient and hold our nerve. There is nothing else you can do. The family feels no linger towards the man, just a feeling of confusion really as to why someone would do that to such an unprotected, happy young child. She's a normal 13-year-old. She's not a worldly sort of kid. She's not street wise, but resourceful in a situation like this? Who knows? One of the things we have loved about Australia is the safety of the children on the streets, on trams, on public transport. It was fantastic. It gave the children a freedom which, certainly at their age and as girls, we would never have let them have in London. Head of the major crime squad, Detective Inspector Ron Blackshore pleaded with the kidnapper to make contact with either the police or Nicholas family. Quote, "We are prepared to discuss anytime, anywhere, anything he wants to talk about. You can draw your own conclusions with a naive 13-year-old girl in the hands of a kidnapper. The mind boggles with what could happen. We are very concerned." Detective Blackshore went on to say that the kidnapping had been carefully planned. Police believed the man responsible had observed their house for some time, possibly up to several weeks prior to attacking in order to work out the family's patterns. The car the kidnapper had stolen from the house was found to dump the next afternoon in Chorsa Crescent Canterbury, just a few streets from the Linus home. Forensic experts were immediately called and dusted the vehicle for prints. Everyone who lived on Monometh Avenue was questioned, but nobody had heard or seen anything suspicious. All they could offer in the way of insight was an observation that sounded similar to the one made by Sharon Wills' neighbours. We never thought this sort of thing would happen here. Police visited Nicholas' school and interviewed her classmates. They also investigated whether Nicholas' abduction could be linked to that of Sharon Wills. The early description of the kidnapper seemed similar. He was a softly spoken male, possibly in his 30s, wearing a black balaclava, dark colored jeans and a dark skivvy. The Victorian government announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of Nicholas' abductor. Forensic psychologist Tim Watson Monroe said he was puzzled by the abduction. The sum of $25,000 seemed too small for a planned kidnap. It didn't appear that money was the driving factor, making the motive unclear. He told the age, quote, "Whether it was impulsive or planned, the person is a disturbed individual. It is someone who can't empathize with the family or the victim and is very directed to his own demands. But he seems to be in touch with reality. There is no indication he is suffering from a psychotic influence. That's probably a good thing. If he's in touch with reality, he will probably calm down and release the child. The important thing is for him to make contact so some dialogue can start happening to establish some rapport and take the edge out of the situation." At 2am on Friday, July 6, Nicola Linus' 14th birthday, residents of a house in Tennyson Street, Q, a suburb about 6km west of Canterbury, heard a knock at their front door. When they went to answer it, they saw a young girl standing there. It was Nicola. Her kidnapper had driven her around for a while before stopping in Q and telling her to get out of the car. She had been blindfolded and wrapped in a light-brown blanket. The kidnapper made Nicola kneel in the street and put her head between her legs. Just before he drove away, he removed the tape he'd kept over her eyes since abducting her three days earlier. After a while, Nicola had made her way to the house on Tennyson Street where she asked to use the phone to call her father. Police were notified and Nicola was taken to hospital. She'd been held captive for 50 hours, bound and blindfolded the entire time. Nicola had no idea who'd kidnapped her or where she'd been taken to. She reported that the kidnapper was meticulous when it came to cleaning up and destroying any potential evidence. Despite this, the police announced that they had several pieces of forensic evidence they believed could provide a breakthrough. Although they didn't specify what the evidence was, they revealed that it had been found in the Linus House. and in the rental car the kidnapper had stolen. Because the attacker had told Nicola to grab her school uniform, police believed he may have been watching her at school. There had been recent reports of several different suspicious men loitering around the school's grounds. Police learnt from Nicola that the kidnapper was aged between 20 and 40 and wore a dark green hint knitted balaclava with cream stitching around the eyes and mouth. He had a serrated kitchen knife with a 25 centimetre black plastic handle. Nicola said she'd been driven around for about 10 minutes in her parents' rental car before they stopped in Chorsa Crescent just a few streets from her house. She was then moved into another vehicle, hidden beneath the dashboard and covered with a blanket. Her kidnapper drove her around for about another 45 minutes before taking her into a house in a suburban area. Her kidnapper watched the press conference when Nicola's father had spoken and made comments to her about it. Police set up information caravans in Chorsa Crescent where Nicola had been moved into a second vehicle and had the location when Nicola was found. They also set up a roadblock in Canterbury. Every passing car was pulled over and their occupants were asked if they'd been in the area the night Nicola was abducted. If so, had they seen anything suspicious? At times, the traffic was backed up for up to 500 metres while members of the public were questioned. Some accused the police of resorting to this tactic because they had nothing and were getting desperate. Detectives denied this, insisting that they were confident the case would be solved. Not quickly, but it would be solved. Then who was reported that another earlier attack had been definitively linked to those of Sharon and Nicola. Case file will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Case file to continue to deliver quality content. This attack had occurred 16 months before Sharon's abduction on Saturday, August 22, 1987. Like the others, it was committed on the eastern side of the city in the suburb of Lowa Plenty, 19 kilometres northwest of Ringwood and 14 kilometres north of Canterbury. At 4am, a man wearing a mask had approached a family home and removed a window pane from its lounge room. He then entered the house carrying a small handgun and a large hunting knife. The intruder went to the parent's bedroom, forced them onto their stomachs at gunpoint, and expertly tied their hands and feet with knots commonly used by sailors or by those securing large loads. He then made his way to the children's bedroom. He gagged a six-year-old boy and tied him to his bed before attacking an 11-year-old girl. He did not abduct the girl, but he was in no hurry either. He remained inside the house for two hours. He even took time to pause his attack, go to the kitchen and make himself a meal. Afterwards, he searched the house, stealing a box of classical records and a dark blue coat with a faux fur collar. Before leaving, the intruder made a phone call. He referred to the person on the other hand as "bozo" and warned him to move the children or they would be in danger. When police checked the phone's records, they discovered that no calls had been placed during that time at all. The intruder had been pretending. The fake phone call was deemed a red herring to confuse investigators, just like his demands for money, theft of cash and personal belongings, and making a ransom demand at the Linus residence. He was trying to conceal his true motive. The three attacks were all linked to the same offender and he seemed to be escalating. He'd moved from attacking a victim within her own home to taking her from it and the length of time he held his victims was increasing. The media came up with a name for this offender. They called him Mr. Cruel. The renowned crime journalist Andrew Rule later suggested that a better moniker might have been Mr. Carm or Mr. Cool because of the offender's polite and soft-spoken manner. But the name Mr. Cruel stuck and added to the fear that was rippling across Melbourne. An article in the Herald Sun suggested that Mr. Cruel might be a former police officer. Unnamed detectives were quoted as supporting this theory due to Mr. Cruel's obsession with cleaning and destroying evidence and his apparent knowledge of forensic science. One unnamed detective stated, "It could be an ex-copper, it could be a doctor, it could be a lab technician, but whoever it is, he's bloody cunning." Other senior police dismissed the theory that Mr. Cruel was a former or current police officer. They believed he could just be someone who'd read a lot of detective novels and knew something about police procedures and forensic evidence. Detective Maloney, the only named office quoted in the Herald Sun's article, stated, "Detectives are looking at all possible scenarios and at people from a variety of backgrounds. He could be anybody." Whoever Mr. Cruel was, Victoria Police were no closer to identifying him. In September of 1990, they sought help from the FBI in compiling a profile which was not immediately released to the public. The police believed Mr. Cruel could be responsible for a total of six attacks since 1984. Although they withheld details about the other attacks, they did say that not all of the victims were children. At least one was described as being mature in age. Considering on the pattern between the attacks on Sharon Wills and Nicola Linus, forensic psychologist Tim Watson Monroe believed that the window of time between each attack suggested Mr. Cruel was able to sit on his urges for a while before acting. However, Watson Monroe believed that if Mr. Cruel did offend again, then the time between his attack on Nicola and his next victim would be shorter. One month after Nicola's abduction, 13-year-old Carmen Chan was at home on Saturday, April 13, 1991, watching television with her two younger sisters, 9-year-old Carly and 7-year-old Karen. Carmen was a student at the same school that Nicola Linus had attended. Carmen's principal described her as charming, polite, enthusiastic and lively with a good group of friends. She was known to be an extremely hard-working student who hoped to be a barista one day. The three sisters were alone in their temple-sto home as their parents John and Phyllis Chan were busy at a Chinese restaurant they owned in nearby Elphan. John and Phyllis were hard workers who worked a long hours to provide for their family and it wasn't unusual for the girls to be home alone. Their house had an elaborate security gate and was surrounded by a tall brick fence. But someone was watching. At about 9 p.m., an intruder tampered with the security gate and was able to gain entry to the property. He made his way to one of the Chan's cars that was parked in the driveway. In white spray paint, he wrote payback, more to come, and Asian drug deal. These would later be labelled as more red herrings to try and confuse the police. It's believed that the intruder entered the house via an unlocked door or window. Carmen, Carly and Karen were in a bedroom watching a television special on Marilyn Monroe. When Carmen and Carly heard a noise, they walked down the hallway to investigate. There, they were confronted by a masked man. He forced the girls back into the bedroom, where he found Karen called up, hiding behind the bedroom door. The intruder threatened the girls with a knife. He put Carly and Karen in a wardrobe and pushed a bed up against it to trap them inside. He then grabbed Carmen and left the house with her. It was now about 9.30 p.m., 15 minutes later, Carly and Karen managed to free themselves from the wardrobe. Carly rang John at the restaurant and told him a man with a knife had taken Carmen. John rushed home. He frantically searched for Carmen, but couldn't find her. He called police and a message was brought up. were cast over the police radio for a car to attend. When the radio dispatcher said that a 13-year-old girl had been abducted by a masked man armed with a knife, police immediately realized the possible connection to the previous attacks. All available units were called to attend, including a police helicopter and sniffer dogs. Standing streets were sealed off as the massive search got underway. A police dog did pick up a scent which had followed north to nearby church road. However, the scent and the dare. It was believed this was where Mr. Cruel had his car waiting. Witnesses were carevest, but nobody had seen or heard anything. Police couldn't believe Mr. Cruel had been able to carry a presumably struggling girl that far without being seen. Common sisters provided the latest description of Mr. Cruel. He was male and about 25 to 35 years old. He had a slim to medium build, was 170 to 180 centimetres tall, and had been wearing grey sneakers, a greyish greenish tracksuit and a balaclava. Based on the words he'd spray painted on the chance car, police believed he was right-handed. The officer in charge of Carmen's case was Detective Inspector David Sprague. He immediately appealed to the public for help. Police wanted to hear from anyone who knew of a workmate, friend or relative who'd disappeared without explanation at the time of Carmen's abduction. And there was something else that stood out to them. It was currently a school holiday period, with schools closed for their autumn break. Police publicised this information, hopeful that it might be relevant. Perhaps the perpetrator was a school employee currently off work, such as a teacher or a janitor. They also highlighted that both Nicola Linus and Sharon Willes had been abducted during school holidays too. However, this wasn't entirely correct. It hadn't been the school holidays when Nicola was abducted. And although schools had been out when Sharon was attacked the day after boxing day, many Australians were on leave at that time due to the Christmas break. Moreover, Carmen and the victim from Lower Plenty were both attacked on a weekend, making the school holiday aspect irrelevant. Despite this, Investigators focused on the school holiday angle and honed in on teachers and other male employees at schools as possible suspects. The police had no doubt Mr. Cruel had been watching the chance house and knew the three girls had been home alone. Whilst the exact details of the attack weren't released, police said Mr. Cruel had become more vicious towards his victims each time. Criminologist Dr. Paul Wilson told the Sydney Morning Herald, quote, "I think that if he is caught, a lot of people will be shocked. They will have known him as an intelligent, quiet, maybe even introverted man." It was believed Mr. Cruel closely followed his own publicity. He liked reading about himself in the paper and watching news reports on television. Detective Inspector Spray implored him to release Carmen as she suffered from asthma and did not have her inhaler with her. The stress of her ordeal could trigger a severe attack. Three days after the abduction, John and Phyllis Chan gave an emotional address at a press conference. They were hopeful their daughter would be returned to them, as Mr. Cruel had released all of his previous victims. "Please bring my daughter, Carmen, back to home. Carmen, this is your favorite dress. You wear every day, last Saturday, you left that home. You have to come home and wear it. That clothes waiting for you, you love to go very much. Carmen, your sister leads you to smell my family, please. Come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come, come." But the days continued to pass with no sign of Carmen. On Friday, April 19, Carmen's sisters wrote letters to their sister and to Mr. Cruel. It was now almost a week since Carmen's abduction by far the longest amount of time Mr. Cruel had ever held onto a victim. The police released the letters, hoping Mr. Cruel would be moved to release Carmen after reading them. Seven-year-old Karen wrote, "Dear Carmen, I miss you a lot. I am very scared in the dark, and my mum and dad miss you very much. Mimi is sick because she misses you too. Love from Karen." Mimi was the family dog. Nine-year-old Carly wrote, "Whoever has my sister, I would like her back because then she can help me with my homework and also take good care of my little sister and me. Carmen, I wake up all the time. I need you, Carmen. Please bring Carmen back. Carmen, mum, dad, Karen and I are waiting for you. We all miss you very much with our hearts. Love, Carly." Police were working around at the clock on the case, but chief superintendent Kevin Holliday said their concern was growing the longer the Carmen remained missing. Quote, "Quite obviously, the longer the time, the greater our concern. Now, we are approaching a week, we have grave concerns. We are affected. It's the tragedies in life that we see all the time. I think this one in particular has probably affected far more people than we realize, and that would include many of the media, I think." As the days passed without answers, Melbourne remained gripped by the horrific case and speculation ran rife. Inspector Spray again had to address questions and rumours about Mr. Cruel's occupation, stating, "It could just as well be a policeman who is working now. It could be a former policeman. It could also be a solicitor or a barrister, or it could be somebody who is well-read in forensic medicine. He could also be a criminal who has come unstuck before through forensic evidence. Many suggestion of occupational background is pure speculation, with no basis in fact." Though he added that in the 25 years he had been a police officer, he had never before tried to track a criminal with such an extensive knowledge of forensic science. Mr. Cruel was cool and calculating, using various strategies to fool both his victims and the police. He had tried to make one of his previous victims believe he wasn't alone by pretending someone else was in the house with them. He would yell out, ask questions, and make demands. But Mr. Cruel's victim never heard an answer or anyone else's voice and got the sense that Mr. Cruel was just pretending there was somebody else present. Because Mr. Cruel had tried to throw off investigators with red herrings, it was wondered whether he had deliberately targeted two students from the same school as part of a deliberate tactic to distract them. Perhaps he'd hoped suspicion would fall on a member of the school's staff, or perhaps this such a spenical coincidence. The police had to consider all options. Inspector Sprague remained hopeful that Carmen would be returned. Quote, "We are rather optimistic. We know that he displays sympathy to his victims. We also know he is very clever. We think that he knows it is in everyone's best interests to release Carmen." On Tuesday, April 23, the Victorian government announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Carmen Chan's kidnapper. The rewards still stood for Sharon and Nicola's cases as well, meaning there was a total amount of $300,000 on offer. On top of the reward, police commenced an extensive door-knock of the area where Carmen was abducted, knocking on more than 3,000 doors. As well as speaking to the residents, they delivered leaflets and set up an information caravan in Temple Stowe. Public appeals for information resulted in over 3,000 phone calls to a police hotline. Police had hoped that Mr. Cruel would release Carmen before the end of the school holidays. When Monday, April 29 arrived, the first day back at school, the hopes of finding Carmen alive severely faded. Police held grave fears for her safety. Students at Carmen's school began the new term with a special assembly praying for her safe return. Police also requested the students fill out a questionnaire that asked about any suspicious activity they may have seen around the school. or at their homes. Police had compiled a list of more than 130 people they believed could be capable of kidnapping children. Some names had been provided by members of the public, others were identified by going through police records. The backgrounds of all of these persons of interest were thoroughly investigated, establishing their marital status, what kind of car they drove, their occupation, and ascertaining whether their partners travelled during school holiday periods. On Wednesday, May 1, it was announced that a special task force called 'Operation Spectrum' had been established to handle the Mr. Cruel case. The officer in charge was Detective Inspector David Sprake, who'd led the investigation into Carmen's abduction. They released a poster with the title 'Child Abductions', which featured photographs of Carmen, Nicola, and Sharon, as well as brief details about each of their cases. The poster was displayed in every police station in Victoria, as well as railway stations and crime stoppers notice boards in shopping centres. It was also printed in all major newspapers. The poster asked three questions. 1. Do you believe you know the identity of this man? 2. Do you inform police of your suspicions? 3. Where was the man during the above dates? On Thursday, May 2, Phyllis Chan wrote an open letter to Mr. Cruel pleading with him to release Carmen. To the man who took Carmen Chan, dear Mr. Kind, not Mr. Cruel. We miss Carmen very, very much, please let Carmen go. We know you are a kind and caring person. We hope Carmen is safe with you. School has resumed, and it would be nice if Carmen can return to school. Thank you for letting her free, and we can rebuild our lives. Please hear our plea. Love from the Chan family. Father, mother, and sisters of Carmen. A family friend of the Chan's named Jennifer also wrote a song about the case, featuring Delirics. Because only you can give relief. Please, Mr. Please, Mr. Cruel, send her back into her family's arms. Please, Mr. Cruel. When you reach deep down inside you and find some good within your soul, let her go back to society, release her from your hold. Please, Mr. Cruel, please, Mr. Cruel. Please, Mr. Cruel. On Sunday, May 5, 1991, it was reported that police now believed Carmen had been murdered. An unnamed police source told the age, quote, "We've got no doubt the same person is involved, after three weeks you've got to say it's not looking good. In the past he has let them go, but this one has gone on too long. It has been three weeks and there hasn't been any contact. I would say this bloke not only has a good knowledge of forensic science, but also of autopsy, which means we'll probably never find her." All the crime stoppers were starting to take her off, but detectives were still hoping for a breakthrough. On Tuesday, May 14, they set up a roadblock near a bus stop in Main Street, Elpham, where Carmen would disembark after catching the bus home from school. The stop sat near her parent's restaurant. Detectives were working on the theory that Mr. Cruel had stalked Carmen after he saw her getting off the bus. They questioned hundreds of motorists and handed out leaflets regarding Carmen's abduction. They also upped the distribution of the poster appealing for information. In what was a first in the history of Australian policing, leaflet-sized copies of the poster were delivered to every home in Victoria, as well as to some homes in the neighboring states of New South Wales and South Australia. Five thousand volunteers were utilized to deliver the leaflets, which had been donated by a print company. Close to 100 billboards around Melbourne also displayed the poster after donations were made by five different businesses. Phyllis Chan also penned another open letter to Mr. Cruel. It read, "To the man who is with Carmen Chan now, I beg you to release my daughter Carmen immediately. I am longing for her safe return every minute of the day. I love her very, very much. I am willing to offer my life in exchange for Carmen's release. Carmen's sisters Karen and Carly miss her very, very much. They had trusted you on the night of 13 April. They had cooperated with you because you were calm and you looked kind. You had promised them that after you had gone, their sister would open the door for them. You have broken your promise. They were very upset. They blamed themselves for trusting you and did not help Carmen. They feel very, very guilty now. Karen's birthday is at the end of May and Carly's birthday is in June. Both girls say they want nothing but Carmen for their birthday present. Please send Carmen back home immediately. God bless you. Thank you very much. Love from Phyllis. Carly had started sleepwalking and would ask for her sister while asleep. She would walk into the living room asking, "Carly, where are you? Have you come home yet?" On one occasion, Inspector Spray witnessed this and said, "I've watched her and she is definitely asleep. It's a bit scary." Eventually, the Chan family decided to try something different and bypass the police. They wrote another open letter to Mr. Cruel, telling him he could contact them by writing to a private postal address. In order to obtain the address, Mr. Cruel would have to decipher a code in the letter by asking Carmen the name of family friends in Hong Kong. Phyllis Chan explained, "If we do it through the police, he won't get in touch. Maybe he's at the stage to release her, but he is just too scared. But he could feel a little bit easier if he believes us." As if the Chan family wasn't enduring enough, on Thursday, July 11, three months after Carmen's abduction, two men were charged with a sickening extortion attempt. Despite being locked up, a prisoner named Peter Allen Reid, who was serving 21 years for the 1982 murder of a police officer, called Carmen's father, John Chan, on six separate occasions, demanding $15,000 for Carmen's release. He said that if John didn't pay the ransom, he would never see his daughter again. He also threatened to kill John. When John agreed to pay, Peter Reid contacted a federal protective services officer named Vince de Paula and asked him to collect the money at the arranged drop-off site. Vince went there, but there was no money. The police were aware of the extortion attempt and had placed a trace on the Chan's phone after the first call. Both men were arrested and police conducted several search warrants. Peter of them knew anything about Carmen's abduction or where she was. They were just trying to exploit the Chan family's desperation to obtain money. Meanwhile, investigators were also growing increasingly desperate. Months had passed since Carmen had been taken, and they were no closer to finding her abductor. Hoping for information that might finally lead to Mr. Cruel, detectives from Operation Spectrum flew to England to interview Nicola Linus again. Nicola had been held the longest by Mr. Cruel. She'd now had more time to reflect on her ordeal, and it was hoped she might have remembered new details that could help the investigation. Leading up to the first anniversary of Carmen's abduction, the age ran a feature article about the case. A close family friend of the Chan's named Paul Williams said of Phyllis Chan. [BLANK_AUDIO] she's a lot more in control of herself now, having been through a year of trauma. She's more or less resigned to believing that Carmen may no longer bear life, and she's trying to go about her life. But certainly in a different way than she did 12 months ago. On Thursday, April 9, 1992, a man was walking his dog along a track that ran through an isolated state electricity commission terminal station site in Tomas Town, about 20 kilometres from Temple Sto. Part of the area had been used as a dumping ground for landfill. About 20 metres from a waterway called Edgar's Creek, the man was shocked to discover a human skull with three bullet holes in it. He notified the police who undertook an extensive search of the area, uncovering a number of other bones in a shallow grave. The area had recently been levelled by earthworks, which had caused the grave to be disturbed. Police were able to confirm that the remains belonged to Carmen Chan. It appeared that they had probably been at the site for almost 12 months, and whoever buried her there likely had some knowledge of the area. The Chan had been preparing to hold a press conference to mark the one-year anniversary of Carmen's abduction. That was cancelled, and the police held their own press conference to announce the devastating discovery. Detective Inspector Sprig said, "It is horrific. For a child to be killed in that fashion is just incomprehensible." We believe he can not control the desire to act out his urges. It is like an addiction and he will not stop until his court. Although John and Phyllis may never hear the laughter of their daughter again, they can now say goodbye to Carmen and put her soul to rest as she deserves. The family will now have the opportunity to start rebuilding their lives. Police believed Carmen may have been killed because she saw Mr. Cruel's face, causing him to panic and shoot her three times in the head. They believed this based on something that had been previously attributed to Mr. Cruel. In February 1985, a 14-year-old girl was abducted by a masked man from her home in Hampton, at Bayside Suburb in southeast Melbourne. The man bound, gagged and blindfolded the girl before driving her to a vacant building site where he assaulted her. Several hours later, he dropped her off at the nearby Marabbon Bowl on the Pean Highway, not too far from her neighborhood. The similarities between this attack and those attributed to Mr. Cruel led investigators to believe he might have been behind this 1985 abduction as well. During the assault, he told the girl, "My freedom is more important than your life." Villas had told the police that Carmen wasn't someone who would be kidnapped without putting up a fight. She believed Carmen may have ripped off her blindfold and confronted Mr. Cruel. Her exposure of his identity could have led to him impulsively killing her. It also appeared that he had lain low ever since, with no further offences relating to the Mr. Cruel ammo reported after Carmen Chan's abduction. In the absence of any viable leads, investigators turned to increasingly unorthodox methods in the hopes they might lead to the killer. Detectives believed that Mr. Cruel may have suffered from anxiety, stress and depression after Carmen's murder and perhaps sought treatment for these ailments. They wrote to every single one of Victoria's 10,000 registered doctors asking them to consider breaking patient confidentiality and think about whether their duty to the community outweighed duty to her patient. The doctors were also sent a profile of Mr. Cruel, the dates of the crimes and other information about the case. Although the latter had the backing of the Victorian Branch President of the Australian Medical Association, the move was met with some criticism. Members of the public had doubted that Mr. Cruel would have made a full confession to a doctor and worried that the appeal might instead lead to innocent individuals having their medical histories exposed. Yet, many doctors did respond to the appeal and police said they received some useful information. They also turned to a convicted child killer in the United States, whose forensic profile closely resembled Mr. Cruel's. Richard Sterrett had kidnapped several young girls, held them for several days and then released them. He had also killed one of his victims by shooting her. Sterrett had never been to Australia, so there was no chance that he was Mr. Cruel, but Victoria Police noticed the similarities between the two men's crimes and wondered if Sterrett might be able to provide some insight into their suspect. One officer traveled to the US and Sterrett publicly stated that he would be happy to speak to Victoria Police if they wanted, but how helpful he was or whether he ever ended up meeting with any Australian investigators is unknown. Nine months after Carmen Chan was found, police released some more information about Mr. Cruel. On Wednesday, January 27, 1993, they shared sketches of a bedroom and a bathroom in his house, which had been drawn by one of the survivors. Even though she had been warned to keep her eyes closed, she'd taken a risk at several points and managed to sneak a peek at her surroundings. The bedroom had a white door, beige or cream carpet, light-colored walls, peach-colored full-length curtains, a double bed with peach-colored bed head, an orange lamp base and lemon shade with thin white vertical stripes. There was a dark blanket over a bookshelf or cabinet at one end of the room, and a radio had been playing. The interior design was believed to be dated between 1988 and 1990. The victim had detected other details about the home using her other senses. The bathroom was an unusual configuration. You had to pass a wash basin to enter the shower, which had a sliding glass door. There was also a bath. Outside, a driveway sat to the right side of the house and a couple of steps led to the front entrance. The house was on a quiet street with little traffic, though larger jets flew regularly overhead, prompting police to believe the house was near an airport and directly beneath a flight path. Detective Inspector Spray hoped someone would recognize these descriptions. He explained that they'd withhold these details for some time because they hadn't wanted Mr. Cruel to realize how much they knew about his lair. Revealing their hand might prompt him to change the interiors, but they'd already inspected about 30,000 houses in 15 northern suburbs of Melbourne, hoping to find the right property with no luck. Having exhausted their search, they were turning to the public for help. These new details prompted a flood of calls. Around 1400 additional pieces of information were received, leading police to check out a number of houses. Unfortunately, all were eliminated. In June 1993, just over two years after Carmen's abduction, Operation Spectrum was scaled back to a core group of 10 officers. At its peak, there had been more than 40 assigned to the task force. Detective Inspector Spray could depart to lead Victoria Police's detective training school. Speaking about how the Mr. Cruel case had consumed his life, he said, "It does not work after a while. It becomes your life. You live the investigation day after day, racking your brains for possibilities. You are constantly thinking when is he going to strike again? If we don't get him, some other child will be a victim. That's the pressure we deal with all the time." Although the task force was reduced, the public was reassured that the case would not be forgotten, and the search for Mr. Cruel would continue. If there was a major breakthrough, the task force would be increased again. But just six months later, there was reported that the task force would be completely disbanded. Responsibility for the investigation would now fall to Victoria Police's sexual assault and homicide squads. Those who had been a part of the task force were exhausted, as well as depressed and frustrated that they hadn't been able to solve the case. The investigation had also taken a toll on the health, marriages and family lives of many of the police officers involved. Phyllis Chan said, quote, "The task force has been fantastic. The detectives have been very hardworking, but unfortunately they couldn't find or identify the man who took my carmen. I know they avoid worked very hard, and they care for me and my girls. In the years since Carmen's abduction, John and Phyllis Chan's marriage had suffered enormously, the speculation, the strain of media appearances, and the never-ending search for their daughter took a toll. The couple divorced, and Phyllis resumed her maiden name. After John left, Phyllis suffered a financial collapse. She lost her car, her house, and only just told onto her restaurant. One day in early 1995, Phyllis returned home at about 12.30 a.m. on a Monday morning, after working two 16-plus-hour days at her restaurant. As she exited her vehicle, carrying the restaurant takings from the weekend, somebody clubbed her from behind with a wooden object. As pleaded with her attacker, "I am Carmen Chan's mother, please don't." But she was hit on the skull several more times before her attacker fled with the money. She required surgery, 60 stitches, and a week's hospitalization to recover. Police believed the attack had been planned for some time. Several weeks earlier, Phyllis's guard dog had been poisoned. It seemed like her attacker had been watching her. One of Phyllis's former employees was found to be responsible. Six years after Carmen's death, a coronal inquest was held. The coroner ruled that Carmen died of gunshot wounds to the head fired by an unknown person. The date and location where Carmen was killed could not be determined. The coroner ruled that the case would remain open. Operation Spectrum had been the largest task force in Victoria's history up to that point. Huge resources had been thrown at it. Mr. Cruel had become the state's most infamous case, and the people of Victoria demanded that it be solved. The task force had lasted for close to three years. 27,000 people were interviewed. 10,800 leads were investigated. 910,000 kilometres were travelled investigating those leads. The FBI and Scotland Yard were both consulted. Police worked 25,000 hours in unpaid overtime, and the total cost of the investigation was about $3.8 million. When this episode was originally released in January of 2017, there were still 32 people the task force had identified as possible suspects that had not been eliminated from the investigation. As a result of the inquiries and leads generated by the task force, 74 people were charged with offences relating to conspiracy in proper use of telecommunications equipment, firearm and drug offences, rape, incest, and child sexual abuse material, or CSAM. The investigation led to changes to CSAM legislation and a strengthening of legislation regarding sex offenders loitering in areas frequented by children. But they didn't get the man they most desperately wanted. In 2016, on the 25th anniversary of Common Chance abduction, a new reward was announced, $1 million for information that led to the arrest and conviction of her killer. A former member of the task force stated that he believed Mr. Kruel was still alive and would still have items he'd taken from his victims. Quote We have always maintained that there will be someone in the community who is an associate or knows the offender in this case. We have always thought someone would know and be close to him, and know it was him. Detective Inspector Spray described the case as a monkey on his back that was still there. There were too many suspects rather than too few. He believed it was possible Mr. Kruel was one of the tens of thousands of people who police interviewed during the investigation. In 2012, Spray shared some issues that Operation Spectrum faced with the herald son, including the failure to preserve the Chan House. Quote The crime scene was not preserved as it should have been. We had a lot of problems with it. Unfortunately, the initial police member in charge had set up the command post inside the house. It was a disaster with people stomping all over the place. They didn't seal the crime scene off as they should have. He also revealed that after suspicion's grew that Mr. Kruel had committed a series of earlier attacks in Melbourne, police discovered that some vital evidence from those cases was missing, including some tape used to bind a victim. This was a critical loss. If Mr. Kruel was behind this earlier attack, it was possible he hadn't been as careful than as he had become later on, and he might have left a DNA or other vital evidence on the tape. We will never know as the exhibit just isn't there anymore. Spray said. In those days, police didn't have the supervision that they do now. With things like exhibits, people would sometimes leave them in their lockers. By the time we identified these additional attacks, years after they had taken place, some of those exhibits had been lost, and others had simply been thrown out. They had never been examined. Operation Spectrum changed the way all Victorian detectives conduct investigations, with the introduction of minimum standards for exhibits, crime scene preservation, and record keeping. Also in 2016, Harold Sun journalist Keith Moore revealed that the task force had compiled a confidential dossier dubbed the Sierra Files. These listed seven suspects whom investigators had been unable to eliminate from the investigation. In 1994, detectives from Victoria Police were instructed to immediately arrest and question these seven individuals if another child was abducted. No further abductions linked to the Mr. Kruehl case eventuated after Cameron Chan's murder. The Harold Sun had obtained the man's names, but agreed not to publish them at the request of Victoria Police. However, they did share some identifying details about the seven men. One had relocated to Canada in 2014, another died the following year. Bill was said to own a home in Harcourt, a town about an hour and a half north of Melbourne, but he spent most of his time in the city. The Harold Sun managed to track down and speak to three of the men named in the Sierra Files, including the prime suspect whom they dubbed Bill. Bill was later named by Channel 9's program, A Current Affair, as Brian Allen Elkner. Seventy-five years old, in 2016, Elkner had been imprisoned decades earlier, after he pleaded guilty to attacking six girls and young women in their homes over a two-year period from April 1972. He had tied up all six victims, threatened them at knife point and assaulted them. Elkner had also cut off a 15-year-old victim's clothes with scissors. He told a psychiatrist that he'd fantasized about tying women up and raping them since his late teens, but only started acting on the fantasy in his early 30s. As an adolescent, Elkner attended Bourbon High School in Melbourne's inner eastern suburbs, not far from the suburb of Canterbury when Nicola Linus was attacked. When he attacked girls and women in the early 70s, Elkner had been living in Hampton, a suburb associated with two suspected Mr. Crawl cases. He was a senior lecturer at Melbourne University and was married with three children. He pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault, one count of common assault, one count of assault with intent to rape, and one count of rape. He spent 10 years in prison and was released in the mid-80s before the confirmed Mr. Crawl attacks began. Elkner spoke to the herald son, admitting that he'd been questioned about the Mr. Crawl crimes, but denied having anything to do with them. He was also questioned about the case of 13-year-old Bung Syraboon in 2011, who went missing in the suburb of Boronia on her way to school. Detectives had raided Elkner's home in Thornbury in Melbourne's inner north, where they found a balaclava and a knife hidden in the roof. You can learn more about Bung Syraboon's case in the case file presents podcast series titled What's Missing. Although Elkner has fit several elements of the police profile for Mr. Crawl and has never been eliminated as a person of interest, investigators have never found clear evidence tying him to the crimes. Defending himself in 2016, Elkner told the herald son, "I did my time and I've recovered my life pretty well." well, I've got a new family. The FBI profile of Mr. Cruel has since been made public. Agents used information from the survivors to form a basis for the profile. Keep in mind, a profile is only a guide and not an exact science. Nobody should be discounted just because they don't match it. Mr. Cruel is intelligent, obsessive about cleanliness, has an intense interest in children, a steady job, and is creative and visually orientated. He gets satisfaction from the way things look, rather than the way they function. He is white and aged between 30 and 50 at the time of the attacks, about 175 cm tall, with a slim to medium build, a small pop belly, fair to sandy-colored hair, and at times was unshaven or sported a beard. He possibly wears glasses, he is tidy in his appearance and dress, his home is neat and clean. He could have had a low or senior management job, or may have even been self-employed, giving him the freedom to roam around Melbourne during the day. He would appear to be kind, genuine, interested, and dedicated to helping children, a good neighbour, possibly an introvert. He would have access to another house during kidnappings and would have been very stressed after each crime. His behaviour might have been erratic around the times of the crimes. He could have taken time off work and appeared preoccupied, distant, and unable to concentrate. He used the words "bozo," "worry-wart," and "missy" a lot during the attacks. If involved in a romantic relationship, he would possibly show signs of sexual dysfunction. His sexual arousal and gratification would be dependent on his partner playing specific roles, such as dressing up as a schoolgirl. The possibilities as to why Mr. Cruel hasn't attacked again are as follows. He was sent to jail for an unrelated case. He moved either into state or overseas. He may have committed more crimes, but they either haven't been detected or haven't been linked to him. He was interviewed by officers from Task Force Spectrum during the investigation, and that was enough to make him stop, or he is dead. Forensic psychologist Tim Watson-Muno commented on Mr. Cruel's abrupt disappearance. I find it intriguing that he is not surfaced again, because people with this kind of problem have a very strong compulsion to satisfy their needs. In the years since this podcast's original release in 2017, Mr. Cruel's crimes have cropped up in the news and further details have come to light. In 2019, the Channel 9 program Australian Crime Stories devoted an episode to Mr. Cruel, in which retired detective Chris O'Connor revealed that investigators had considered that Mr. Cruel might have as many as it does in victims. Although most of these victims were girls, Mr. Cruel was also suspected in an assault against the 14-year-old boy and one against an adult woman. April 13, 2021, marked the 30th anniversary of the abduction and murder of Carmen Chan, and the case hit the spotlight again as Victoria Police's cold case squad confirmed that they had reopened the investigation. Newspapers ran articles about the crime, and a new theory emerged that Mr. Cruel might have a connection to Melbourne's electrical industry, due to his offenses being committed around electricity infrastructure. In 2024, Melbourne newspaper The Age commissioned a new criminal profile of Mr. Cruel from American profiler John Kelly. Kelly and his team believed that Mr. Cruel might have been a burglar whose crimes escalated into more serious violent offenses. He had a high IQ, a need for absolute control, and an obsession with cleanliness. The following year, associate professor David Wells, the former head of the Victoria Police's forensic department, spoke with the podcast crime insiders about his work on the Mr. Cruel case. Wells revealed something striking. He had collected a number of specimens from Mr. Cruel's victims, one of which could potentially allow investigators to identify the perpetrator. This led to speculation that Victoria Police might have had DNA evidence on file. This has never been confirmed by the authorities, nor has it been revealed whether DNA evidence collected decades ago could still exist in a usable form. Mr. Cruel had an immense impact on Melbourne, sparking unprecedented fear in both adults and children during the late 80s and early 90s. Even hardened criminals were shaken and took measures to better protect their families. Unless you lived through it, it is hard to fully appreciate. In 1991, when associate professor David Wells was still working with Victoria Police, he told the Sydney Morning Herald that the case made such an impact because it struck at the heart of what should be a safe place, the family home. Quote, "For all children, their home is a safe house. They feel secure there. They are looked after there." Suddenly, they have been confronted by the idea that they could be taken away from that environment by a man in a balaclava. Many parents I've spoken to say their children are feeling very insecure. Some are having nightmares, can't sleep, and are worried about the security of their house. Mr. Cruel remains unidentified as of the release of this episode in October 2026. The $1 million reward for information that leads to the conviction of the person responsible for common chance ofduction and murder still stands. And the man once labelled Australia's boogie man remains a specter in the public consciousness. [Music]