Casefile Revisited: The Wanda Beach Murders

From journalists to Liviela Voice, the creator of the Hidden Investigative Series, the Bakersfield 3, comes the new case file-present series, Ada. In 2011, the body of a woman was discovered in a California vineyard. For more than a decade, she was known only as Jane Doe. Then, detectives finally discovered her name. But identifying her was only the beginning. Listen to Ada, wherever you get your podcasts. It's here. Case file has officially entered its 10th year. I want to take a minute to extend a warm thank you to everyone who was listened, supported and stayed with the show over the past decade. When I made the first episode of Case File, I had no real understanding of podcasting or audio production. My simple hope was that it might reach 100 listens. Fast forward a decade, and I could never have imagined being in this position, with over 330 episodes in the Case File catalog, a loyal global audience, and a small team joining me for the journey. To mark the 10-year anniversary, I'd like to introduce you to Case File Archives, a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. To kick things off over the next 8 weeks, counting down to the new season, we'll be releasing a mix of fully re-recorded episodes from our first year of production, along with episodes that were previously only available to Patreon and Premium supporters. Rest assured that these are additional bonus releases, and will not replace our standard schedule, which is set to resume on March 7 this year. We also want to reassure you that we'll still be releasing the same number of new Case File episodes this year as we did in 2025. The Case File Archives series is strictly bonus content in the lead up to the new season, as a way to mark our 10th year. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded, and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete re-rides. Our goal wasn't to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn't have when I started the show back in 2016. Where appropriate updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remained faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today. We're beginning the series with the newly re-recorded Wanda Beach Case. This was the very first episode of Case File. We are releasing it today on January 9th, 2026, exactly 10 years after the original episode first aired on January 9th, 2016. It also comes just two days before the 61st anniversary of the crime. Throughout our 10th year, our goal is to release episodes most weeks of the year, with this Case File archive's bonus series providing additional material alongside our new episodes. It's a way for us to reflect on those early cases and re-highlight stories that many newer listeners may have missed. Whether you've been listening since the start or have only just tuned in, myself and the rest of the Case File team thank you for joining us. We couldn't have done it without you. Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. On January 12th, 1965, the bodies of 15-year-olds Mary and Schmidt and Christine Sharrick were found on a desolate and isolated stretch of beach just north of Kronala in Sydney, South. The Case would come to be known as the Wanda Beach Murders. One mention of the word Wanda is enough to send chills down the spine of those who remember the case that dominated the television reports, radio airwaves and print media of the day. The killing sparked one of the biggest manhunts Australia has ever seen. The police file on the case is over 10,000 pages long and over 14,000 people have been interviewed. Efforts to solve the case have been exhaustive and to leads have been followed up all around Australia. The case raised many questions. What drew Mary Ann and Christine to the Wanda sand hills that day? Had they arranged to meet someone or were they in the wrong place at the wrong time? Speculation and theories have surrounded the case since day one, but only one thing is clear. A vicious and ruthless killer has never been brought to justice. Welcome to Case File, True Crime Podcast, Case One, the Wanda Beach Murders. In 1958, married couple Helmut and Elizabeth Schmidt decided to migrate to Australia from their hometown in Germany. They made the journey along with their six children, Helmut Junior, Mary Ann, Hans, Peter, Wolfgang and Trixi. Upon their arrival, the family stayed in various migrant camps and soon welcomed a seventh child, a boy named Norbert, before eventually settling down into a home of their own on Brush Road in the Sydney suburb of North Ride. 13-year-old Mary Ann Schmidt quickly struck up a friendship with her next door neighbor, Christine Cherrick, who was the same age. Christine lived with her grandparents, Jim and Jeanette, choosing to do so after her father passed away and her mother remarried. Christine and Mary Ann formed an instant bond, sharing a love of the beach and music, with a particular fondness for Elvis. The two became inseparable. Reflecting on their friendship later on, Christine's uncle said, "They did not go out much and their main interests were centered around their homes. They were always in each other's company and neither went out with boys." Both girls were described as being good students and regular churchgoers who were quiet and well-behaved. They weren't known to hang around any unsavory characters. In 1964, Helmut Sr. passed away after a battle with Hodgkin's disease. One can only imagine how much tighter Mary Ann and Christine's bond became, having both lost their fathers at such a young age. By 1965, Mary Ann and Christine were both 15 and closer than ever. On New Year's Day, the two friends visited Crannulla Beach, a popular spot located around 30 km south of Sydney's CBD. Although the journey took around two hours each way, it was the only Sydney Beach accessible by train at the time, and therefore it was the only beach the teenagers ever visited. During this trip, they walked a little further north to the less crowded wonder beach, where they strolled through the sand hills. The next day, Mary Ann visited Crannulla Beach again, this time with her brothers and sisters. She went off on her own for several hours, and when she returned, she told her siblings she had gone for a walk to wonder beach. She didn't say why. Around the same time, Mary Ann's mother, Elizabeth Schmidt, was admitted to hospital to undergo an operation. She left her oldest children, Helmut Jr. and Mary Ann in charge of the household while she recovered. On January 9, Mary Ann and Christine visited Elizabeth in hospital, and Mary Ann asked if they could take some of her siblings to Crannulla Beach the following day. Elizabeth gave them permission to do so, but the next day, the weather was terrible, so Mary Ann and Christine decided to postpone their plan. The trip went ahead the following morning on Monday, January 11, 1965. While getting ready, Christine told her grandmother Jeanette that it would be fun to walk along the wonder sand hills again. Jeanette urged her not to, replying, "Don't go today, love. You've got the four little ones with you. It's too far." Christine tried to argue, but again her grandmother warned her against it. So what are the Wanda Sandhills and what was the girl's fascination with them? Wanda Sandhills is an Aboriginal name, meaning sandhills by the sea beach. Wanda Beach is part of a longer stretch of coastline that starts with Cranulla Beach and includes North Cranulla Beach, a Lura Beach, and then Wanda Beach. The Wanda Sandhills, otherwise known as Greenhills, run behind Wanda Beach and continue north up to the Sydney suburb of Cornell. The distance from Cranulla Beach to the Wanda Sandhills is about two kilometers. While the main part of Wanda Beach itself was clean and pristine back in 1965, the isolated sandhills were a different story entirely. The sandhills were described as being Sydney's filthiest and loneliest stretch of beach, littered with smashed bottles, old shoes, rusted cans, broken toys, and all kinds of discarded junk and rubbish. Regardless, the isolation meant the Wanda Sandhills were popular for people wanting to meet up without being seen. Given that homosexuality was illegal at the time, certain areas of the sandhills were popular with gay men who wanted to engage in casual sex. The area was also known to attract nude sunbaters, couples engaging in public sex, public masturbators, voyers, and men who harassed women and propositioned them for sex. Access to the sandhills could be gained without having to walk along the main beach areas by either parking behind the hills or following a number of trails. Many local residents were aware of what went on in the sandhills and refused to let their children anywhere near them. It obviously didn't sound like the ideal place for two well-behaved teenagers like Mary and Schmidt and Christine Cherrick, but they weren't from the local area, and therefore were likely unaware of its reputation. Back then, information wasn't as readily available and didn't travel anywhere near as fast as it does today. And so, on that morning of Monday, January 11, the two friends got ready for their day at the beach. Christine packed a thermos of cordial under one pound note to buy lunch with later on, while Mary-Anne packed some sandwiches and fruit. At 8.30am, the two teenagers walked to the West Ride train station along with Mary-Anne's nine-year-old sister Trixie and her brothers, 10-year-old Peter, 7-year-old Wolfgang and 5-year-old Norbert. The other two Schmidt boys, Helmut Junior and Hans, stayed home to complete some household chores. The journey to Cronulla required the group to change trains once they reached Radford station. As they began their first leg of the trip, a tall teenage boy who looked to be around 15 years old struck up a conversation with Mary-Anne and Christine. What they talked about isn't known, but the boy didn't follow them when they switched stations, and the girls didn't talk to anyone else for the rest of the journey. The group arrived at Cronulla Beach at around 11am only to find out that the beach was closed due to dangerous seas and strong winds. One to turn, they headed to the southern end of Cronulla Beach and hung around the rocks. Wolfgang kept pestering Mary-Anne to take him for a swim, and eventually she gave in and took him to a shallow and more secluded spot for a quick dip before they rejoined the others to eat lunch on the rocks. At some point, Wolfgang saw Mary-Anne and Christine talking to a boy who was hunting for crabs with a homemade spear. He looked to be around 16 years old and was of medium build with long, fair hair. Wolfgang couldn't hear what they were talking about. Shortly after lunch, Mary-Anne suggested they all take a walk to the Wanda sand hills, and the others agreed. They left their belongings at the rocks and began the two-kilometer journey north. Once they reached a Wanda beach, the walk became too much for the younger children. The wind was howling, and it was whipping the sand up and stinging their legs. Wolfgang found a spot that was sheltered from the wind. Mary-Anne and Christine told the younger kids to stay there while they walked back to the rocks and grabbed their belongings so they could go home, saying it should only take them about 20 minutes. However, it didn't appear that the pair had any intention of going home just yet. Instead of walking south, they continued north to the sand hills. Peter yelled out to them, "You're going the wrong way." But the girls just looked back and laughed, continuing on into the sand hills. About ten minutes later, Peter sent Wolfgang out to look for the girls. Wolfgang walked to the sand hills and saw Mary-Anne and Christine talking to a teenage boy who looked to be about 16 years old. He was a "big boy" with tanned skin, long, light-colored hair, and white sun cream on his nose. He wore grey trousers with no shirt and carried a blue towel. Wolfgang thought he looked like a surfie. He looked angry and was asking Mary-Anne and Christine for their names. The girls followed the surfie into the sand hills, and Wolfgang decided not to follow them any further. About ten minutes later, Wolfgang saw the surfie-looking teenager walking out of the sand hills alone. His blue towel was now tied around his neck. Wolfgang asked the teen, "Where are the girls?" But he walked straight past without answering. We can only speculate as to why Mary-Anne and Christine walked into the sand hills that day, but it does seem clear that they were determined to go there. Not only had Christine mentioned the plan to her grandmother, but they had also persevered with taking the young children on the long walk despite the poor weather conditions. Because of this, many were later convinced that the girls had planned to meet someone at the sand hills that day. However, Mary-Anne and Christine had originally planned to go to the beach on the Sunday, the day before, and that those plans had only changed at the last minute due to the bad weather. Back then, in the days before mobile phones and social media, it wasn't as easy to re-schedule as it is today. If they did go to the sand hills with the intention of meeting someone, it is possible that it was someone who they had come into contact with that Monday. After Wolfgang lost sight of Christine and Mary-Anne, a man named Dennis Dostin saw the pair hurrying through the sand hills. One of them kept looking over her shoulder as though someone was following them, but Dennis couldn't see anyone else and he didn't think much more of it. Meanwhile, the Schmidt siblings continued to wait. Eventually, they went looking for Mary-Anne and Christine, but couldn't find them. At no stage, did Wolfgang mention the surfing teenager to the others. After a few hours, the children realized that time was slipping away and the last train out of Cronulla would be leaving at 6 p.m. They made the decision to head home without Mary-Anne and Christine, trudging back down to the southern end of Cronulla Beach where their belongings still sat untouched. They boarded the last train out of Cronulla and arrived home after 8 p.m. informing both families that the two girls were missing. No greater alarm bells went off for the police who attended to take the missing person's report. After all, the two friends had happily walked off at their own free will. The officers asked the usual questions, have they done this before? Is there anywhere you think there might be? Did they have boyfriends, etc.? Their only concern stemmed from the fact that Mary-Anne and Christine both came from happy homes and had never run off before. It was completely out of character for either of them to go off without telling anyone and even stranger that they would leave the younger children alone at the beach. A description of the pair was broadcast to all police stations in the Sydney area. Just imagine how different it was in 1965. There were no mobile phones to track. No social media accounts to check. no instant media releases that could go viral to keep the public on the lookout. But even if all that modern technology was available, it would have been too late. At around 2.30pm on Tuesday, January 12, 17-year-old Peter Smith was walking through the Wanda Sandhills with these two younger nephews when he saw what looked like a store mannequin lying in the sand. A closer inspection revealed the grim reality. Build with shock and panic, Peter ran to the Wanda Surf Club which was about 1500 meters south. He notified the caretaker that he had found the body of a teenage girl and asked to use the phone to call the police. Police arrived at the surf club and Peter led them to the site in the sandhills. Upon closer inspection, a police officer noticed that there were actually three feet sticking out from under the sand. The shocking discovery became that much more horrific when it was discovered that there wasn't just one body, but two. Local Kronola detectives soon notified the criminal investigation branch and homicide detectives made their way to Wanda along with forensic investigators. The crime scene was thoroughly examined and portable lighting was brought in as the work continued into the night. It didn't take long for police to link the gruesome discovery to the missing person report for Mary Ann Schmet and Christine Sharrick and a positive identification was made. The location where the girl's bodies were found was 2 June's back from where they had first wandered off, 150 meters from the water's edge and about 1500 meters north of Wanda Surf Club. Mary Ann's brother Hans, who hadn't gone to the beach with the group, visited the crime scene and described the area. The place the girls were killed was very isolated, even though it was only two June's back from the beach, he said. It was so quiet I couldn't even hear the waves crashing. You could scream your head off and no one would hear a thing. No one could have heard the girls screaming for help. From the location where the girl's bodies were found there was a 32 meter long drag mark in the sand which led to blood stains and signs of a struggle. The lead detective concluded, quote, "It looks as though the Schmet girl was knocked down and then stabbed. Christine was killed about 20 yards away and her body was then dragged back to where the Schmet girl lay. He believed Christine may have witnessed Mary Ann being attacked and then ran off only to be caught her short distance away. Every three meters in the drag marks there were much heavier concentrations of blood. This indicated that whoever was dragging Christine's body had stopped for arrest at certain intervals. Given that Christine was described as a "petit girl", this implied that the perpetrator may not have been very strong. About 30 meters west of where Christine was attacked, detectives located car tyre tracks, but they couldn't say with certainty whether the tracks were related to the crime. It was also possible that the killer had escaped on foot over the back of the sand hills towards Captain Cook Drive without ever going back to the beach. Post mortems revealed that Christine and Mary Ann had both been savagely attacked and mutilated. The official cause of Christine's death was hemorrhage as a result of penetrating wounds to the chest associated with a fracture of the skull and injury to the brain. Mary Ann's official cause of death was hemorrhage as a result of a cut throat and penetrating wounds to the chest. There were signs that both girls had been sexually assaulted. Seaman was also found on Mary Ann's body. The attack was so savage that the full details have never been released to the public. The time of death for both girls was estimated to be between 2pm and midnight on Monday, January 11, 1965. The exact time was difficult to pinpoint as both of their bodies had been covered by hot sand. An examination of Christine's stomach contents revealed that she had undigested cabbage and celery in her system. This immediately stood out to investigators as the group had only taken sandwiches and fruit to the beach and Christine hadn't eaten anything containing these ingredients while with the others. For the food to be undigested, it meant she had eaten within one hour of her death. Christine also had a blood alcohol reading of.015. This was the equivalent of either drinking about a medi of beer or a nip of spirits just prior to her death or the culmination of drinking several drinks in the hours leading up to her death. The time she had consumed the alcohol couldn't be accurately determined, but the reading of.015 would have been accurate at the time she died and wouldn't have changed thereafter. Marianne, on the other hand, had no alcohol in her system. This revelation horrified Christine's grandmother as Christine was not known to drink. Her family stated that she had never touched alcohol and couldn't even stand to the smell. Loud alarm bells were going off. The food found in Christine's stomach didn't match what they had brought to the beach and they certainly hadn't taken any alcohol with them. Given that the food in Christine's stomach was consumed within one hour of her death, it was likely that Christine had shared food and alcohol with her killer. 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. The injuries the girls had sustained led police to believe they were looking for a fishing knife. They were also looking for a heavy blunt instrument that was used to inflict the injuries on Christine, such as a rock, a lump of wood, or a piece of metal pipe. The police questioned Wolfgang Peter, Trixie, and Norbert Schmidt extensively. On Wednesday, January 13, the children were taken to the sandhills to retrace their steps and provide as much information as possible about what had happened during their visit on Monday. Tragically, at this point, they were still unaware that Marianne and Christine were dead. It was at this point that detectives first learned that seven-year-old Wolfgang had seen the surfy-looking teenage are talking to the girls before they disappeared into the sandhills. He'd first mentioned it to one of his older brothers while they were at home waiting for news about Marianne's whereabouts. None of the other children recalled seeing the surfy. Wolfgang's account was the first major piece of information that detectives had to go by, and the hunt for the surfy teenager began. Media reports on the TV, radio, and newspaper were dominated with details about the suspect last seen with Marianne and Christine just prior to their deaths. The problem was, the description of the surfy matched just about every teenage boy in the Kronola and Sutherland Shire area. In a bid to make sure other potential persons of interest didn't fly under the radar for not matching this description, the police were quick to point out that they didn't necessarily believe the surfy was the murderer. It didn't take long before the police were swamped with hundreds of calls each day about the surfy. The caretaker of the Wanda surf club revealed that on the Thursday before the murders, he had kicked a teenager who matched that description off the beach for harassing two young girls. The media ran wild and the police commissioner made a public appeal for the surfy to come forward. With a hunt in full swing, the media reported that 14-age suspects had been detained, one of them as far away as Queensland, and they were each being questioned. The truth was that they weren't suspects in the Wanda beach murders at all, but just teenagers who had been arrested on other minor matters. The fact that they may have looked like surfies was enough for some people to label them as suspects. A mammoth search of the crime scene and surrounding Wanda Sandhill's commenced. Police, including trainees, were sent from all over Sydney to help. The search wasn't easy. easy. The filthy nature of the sand hills, with all the discarded rubbish, hampered the search for clues immensely. Several items were located, including shoes and even knives, but they were quickly ruled out as having anything to do with the murders. By Thursday, January 14, police had secured a front-end loader from Sutherland Shire Council so they could dig up the sand, which was then put through a sift. Army experts with metal and mine detectors were even sent to help. They dug up 500 tons of sand, but found very little to assist their investigation. The only piece of physical evidence that was located was a broken piece of a knife blade that was believed to have come from a kitchen knife. The piece of blade was about one inch long and had a clear cutting edge. It tested positive for blood, however there was an insufficient amount to conduct any further testing. Even if there was, DNA testing didn't exist at the time and wouldn't for another 21 years. A forensic pathologist later testified that the stab wounds inflicted on Marianne and Christine would have been difficult to inflict with this particular piece of broken blade. Although he did say that some cut marks on Christine could have been made with a knife that had a portion of its blade missing. It was ultimately unclear if this piece of blade was part of the murder weapon and had broken off during the Savage attack, or if it was completely unrelated. On January 15, Marianne's mother Elizabeth Schmidt broke her silence about the murders. She was still in hospital recovering from her operation, having been allowed temporary leave to comfort her children after news of Marianne's death broke. In a heartbreaking interview, Elizabeth said, "My daughter and the other young girl have gone into eternal life. They have met their maker and have therefore entered a new phase of existence. The person responsible, the murderer, has his life ahead of him. How he faces this life is something I cannot answer. But his life would appear to be spiritually speaking, poorer than anything else. He would always be hunted and taunted. The man responsible should meet his punishment and I think my husband would have felt the same way. He should be made responsible for his action." At this time, the police commissioner renewed his appeal for the Serfie teenager described by Wolfgang Schmidt to come forward. Reports had been circulating in the media that the Serfie was the killer, but the commissioner clarified, quote, "He should not be influenced by published statements. He could very well clear the air for us in our investigations." The next day, the commissioner made another appeal, stating, "I renew my appeal to this youth to come forward and tell us what happened last Monday. Because he was seen coming away alone from the scene, it does not necessarily follow that he is the killer." He stressed that police believed that the Serfie could have been an innocent bystander who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. If he'd just come and talk to the police, they could clear him of suspicion. By this stage, police had interviewed over 20 people who had been at the beach on Monday, January 11. More than 40 detectives had been assigned to the case full-time in what was shaping up to be one of the biggest manhunts Australia had ever seen. Reports of individuals who matched the description of the Serfie teenager were continuing to come in from all over the state and even the country. Police were receiving hundreds of calls a day and were struggling to keep up with the amount of information that was coming in. Some felt that a vital tip off may have been lost amongst the thousands of calls that were received. Both Mary Ann and Christine kept the diaries, and through those diaries, police learned that when the girls had visited the beach together on New Year's Day of 1965, they had met and kissed two boys. On January 16, police made a public appeal for those two boys to come forward, and they did. No knownly as Ted and Jim, the two teens were interviewed by police and confirmed they had met Mary Ann and Christine at the beach on New Year's Day. However, they said they hadn't made any plans to meet up again. Both of their alibiers checked out and Ted and Jim were quickly ruled out of the investigation. On January 18, one week after the murders, news reports ran wild that a teenage boy was being held by police after a pair of bloodstained trousers were found on Kujee Beach and identified as belonging to him. Wolfgang Schmidt was rushed to Randwick Police Station where a line-up was conducted, but he didn't identify the teenager as the surfy he had seen on the day of the murders. It turned out that the individual had a simple explanation for the blood being on his trousers, and it was confirmed that he wasn't at Wanda Beach on January 11. Meanwhile, detectives were being flooded with information about several other suspicious males who had been seen at the beach on the day of and days leading up to the murders. A sketch artist was brought in to assist witnesses. By this point, Wolfgang Schmidt had revealed another detail. He said that the surfy he'd seen talking to the girls on the day of the murders was the same boy who had been hunting for crabs at the rocks earlier that day and had struck up a conversation with the girls. Police made an appeal for the crab hunter to come forward with his description more or less matching that of the surfy. On January 20, separate funeral services were held for Mary Ann Schmidt and Christine Sharrick. The service for Mary Ann was held in the West Chapel of the Metropolitan Funeral home at Burwood and she was then cremated at Rookwood Crematorium. The service for Christine was held at St Michael's Catholic Church in Meadowbank and she was then buried at Liverpool Cemetery near her father. Both services attracted hundreds of mourners. Detectives and police photographers were also in attendance, working on the theory that the girls knew their killer and that he may be at their funerals. Just about every male who attended was photographed. At Mary Ann's service, two teenage sisters were interviewed separately by detectives after their father alerted police that they may have some valuable information concerning Mary Ann and Christine's backgrounds. Detectives were very interested to hear what the girls had to say, but unfortunately no light was thrown on the investigation. By this stage, a number of suspicious people had been reported as being on the beach on January 11 and police were interested in speaking to each one. Dennis Dostin, the last no person to have seen Christine and Mary Ann alive, also reported seeing a number of other people around the same time he saw the two girls. Of particular interest to police was a tall 19-year-old male with pale skin and a stocky male between the ages of 40 and 50 with turned leathery skin. 57-year-old Frances Williams had been at the beach on January 11 and he came forward to report having seen Christine, Mary Ann and the youngest Schmidt children at around 1pm. They were walking north along the beach towards Wanda about 100 metres from the Wanda Surf Club. Frances thought that they were walking quite quickly and looked to be in a hurry. He also described a number of other people he saw around Wanda that day, including a male who was sunbathing in the sand hills. As Frances had approached him, the male got up, shook sand off him and walked off towards Wanda Surf Club. Two young boys who were playing on the beach. Two people fishing on the beach. A man sunbathing with a corrugated iron box over his head. When some people heard this, they immediately jumped to the conclusion that this man was one of the many perverts who lurked around the Wanda sand hills. However, when it was a windy day, it's also possible that he was just using the box to protect his head from the windblown sand. A woman who had become bogged in a sand just behind the sand hills. She was assisted by Frances. And lastly, another unknown male who drove off in a utility. The details of these eight people were released to the media with some immediate [BLANK_AUDIO] success. Upon seeing the report, the woman who was bogged came forward, but she was unable to add anything to the investigation. None of the remaining seven people came forward. Given what the Wanda Sandhills were announced for at the time, it is believed that many people were too scared to come forward out of fear that the police would question them as to what they were doing in the area that day. On January 22, an interesting article was published in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was only very small and buried on page 10, overshadowed by the other stories that were now dominating the news, such as Winston Churchill's declining health and the Rolling Stones visit to Australia. It amongst these other articles, a small headline read, "Wanda victims claim lapses." The article reported that Mary Ann Schmidt had been struck by a car on the corner of Victoria Road and Brush Road at Ride on May 7, 1964. She suffered a fractured skull and had spent nine days in hospital, after which she submitted a compensation claim of £20,000. Australia was still using the pound as currency at the time, and this was quite a significant sum, the equivalent of over half a million dollars in 2016. The claim was due to be hurt later on in 1965, but as a result of Mary Ann's death, the article confirmed that the claim had elapsed and would not proceed any further. But same day, the Police Commissioner made yet another appeal, quote, "I have on more than one occasion asked the public to assist in every way within their power, with information which might help detectives engaged on the case. I now make a further and equally sincere appeal. I do this because I am satisfied that there must be some persons in the community who would have some information they have not brought to the notice of police." It is not unreasonable to assume that someone, somewhere in our community, has seen or heard something which would be of great assistance in this matter. For example, since this crime, a person may not have been seen at places he used to frequent, or there has been a change in pattern of his normal activity and behaviour. It is possible that to someone's knowledge, he has said or done something which would give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he might have been in some way associated with the crime. That is the type of vital information we would like to get. Police were still searching for the seven people that Francis Williams had seen at the beach on January 11. On January 23, a sketch of one to beach and the surrounding sandhills was released to the public. It showed the location of the crime scene as well as the various locations where the seven unidentified people had been seen. Multiple people came forward to report having been at the beach that day, completely unaware of just how close to the crime scene they had actually been, but none of the people Francis had seen came forward. A psychiatrist released a report revealing that they believed the killer lived a local to the area. He likely had intimate knowledge of the sandhills and could have been one of the so-called perverts who frequented the area. The psychiatrist said the killer was likely a loner who had spent time at the one to sandhills spying on nude sunbaters and people having sex. They felt the crimes were committed on impulse and that the killer may have acted on a previous urge after seeing Marianne and Christine during their earlier visits to the sandhills. The investigation into the murders was hampered by the lack of physical evidence and identifiable witnesses as well as the unwillingness of people to come forward, hoping to overcome this. On January 29, the New South Wales Premier announced a £10,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible. The currency changed to dollars soon after and the rewards switched to $20,000. Roughly the equivalent of a quarter of a million in 2016. Two girls came forward to report that they had been writing horses on the beach on January 11 when they saw a naked man walking around the sandhills with his clothes in his hands. It was about 400 metres from where Marianne and Christine were killed. One of the girls yelled out, "What are you doing?" but the man ignored them and kept walking. He was added to the growing list of unidentified people seen at the beach that day. These officers had been assigned to keep watch on the sandhills around the clock in case the killer returned. On February 1, they thought they'd made a breakthrough when one of these officers located a blue tail washed up on Wonder Beach. This was significant because the surfy teenager described by Wolfgang Schmidt had been carrying a blue tail. The tail was immediately sent for scientific testing, but it became another frustrating dead aunt when a 13-year-old boy came forward and identified the tail as one here to lost at the beach only a few days earlier. The large reward was encouraging all types of people to call in and the police were inundated with false leads, dead aunts, hoax callers and fake confessions. By March, anyone who resembled a surfy teenager had been reported to the police. As the weeks passed by, Wolfgang Schmidt added yet another detail. He told the police that when the surfy walked off into the sandhills with Marianne and Christine, he had a knife in a pouch around his waist. When he walked back out alone 10 minutes later, the knife was missing. Wolfgang's story had evolved over several interviews and he'd added vital pieces of information as time went on. It was a source of frustration for detectives and his version of events was treated with some skepticism. Why Wolfgang's story changed numerous times is anyone's guess, but his father had just died. His mother had just had a serious operation and his sister had just been brutally murdered. The amount of stress, trauma, fear and grief the 7-year-old would have experienced is almost inconceivable and he was most likely in severe shock. There was no grief counselling at the time and people were expected to just suck it up. It's not surprising if his memory was a bit muddled. By April, three months had passed and there still hadn't been any breakthroughs. In April 19, two 15-year-old girls were walking together near Caring Bar train station, a short distance from Kranala, when a 15-year-old male grabbed one of them. The girls immediately screamed and managed to frighten the boy off, but their description of him was very similar to that of the surfie provided by Wolfgang, pushing an already frightened community further towards the edge. Police remained frustrated by the fact that several of the people cited at the beach on the day of the murders still refused to come forward. They released six sketches of the individuals they were most interested in talking to. Police included the naked man seen walking through the sand hills, a man who had been exposing himself to women in the months after the murders, and the teenager who had just attacked the girls at Caring Bar. Wolfgang Schmidt was unable to help police with the sketch of the surfie. He agreed with everything the sketch artist said, making it an impossible task. Police were also particularly interested in speaking to two men who had been harassing women in the area. The first was aged between 25 and 35 roughly 5 feet 11 inches tall and of medium to plump a build. He had our quote "slightly foreign appearance" and was known to carry an orange and white towel. On the day of the murders, as well as the days leading up to it, he had been seen in the area wearing great trousers and a white shirt and carrying a newspaper and radio. He approached several women showing them pornographic pitches and asking them questions of a sexual nature. He told some of them that he was from South Australia. The other man was described as being between 18 and 20 years old with the slim build, light brown hair and missing teeth. He had been wearing a long-sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of fawn coloured shorts and was propositioning women on the beach for sex. Neither of these men came forward and they have never been identified. On May 29, a group of youths came forward to reveal that just a few days after Marianne and Christine were murdered, they had found a pair of flippers and a homemade crab spear about one kilometre from the crime scene. They handed both of these items into the police, though it's unclear why they waited four and a half months to provide this information. Wolfgang Schmidt was re-interviewed but he couldn't remember if the spear was the same as the one he had seen the teenage boy hunting for crabs with on the day of the murders. The investigation continued throughout the year and into 1966 but it was starting to stall. The amount of full-time detectives assigned to the case dropped from 40 to 8. Police were still assigned to keep watch on the Wanda sand hills and while this had resulted in a number of people being charged with sexual related offenses, police were no closer to identifying Marianne and Christine's killer. On January 29, 1966, just after the one-year anniversary of the murders, another brutal crime shocked the nation. 57-year-old Wilhelmina Krueger was found stabbed to death at the Piccadilly shopping arcade in Wondong where she worked as a cleaner. She was killed in the early hours of the morning between 4am and 6am. Wilhelmina's murder was horrific and bore similarities to the Wanda case, a frenzy deny-fatac, no suspects, no witnesses, and no attempt at hiding her body. Given that Wongong is less than an hour's drive from Wanda Beach, some believed that both murders were committed by the same person. Just weeks later, on February 26, 1966, the body of 27-year-old Anna Dallin-Kawa was found on the old Ilawara Road in the suburb of Menai in Sydney's south. Again, the location was in close enough proximity to both Wanda Beach and Wongong and Anna had been the victim of a frenzy deny-fatac that was almost identical to the one committed against Wilhelmina Krueger. Anna was a sex worker and was last seen leaving a club in King's Cross after mentioning she was meeting a client. Again, there were no witnesses, no suspects, no physical evidence, and no attempt to hide the body. Police were almost certain the murders of Wilhelmina Krueger and Anna Dallin-Kawa were committed by the same person. Although links to the Wanda Beach case have never been proven, some have speculated that the same person might have committed all four murders. The murders of Wilhelmina and Anna remain unsolved. Their stories were covered in detail on episode 72 of Case File. On April 20, 1966, a colonial inquest into the deaths of Mary Ann Schmitt and Christine Sharrick was held, presided over by the city coroner. By this point, the number of detectives working the case full-time was down to just six. The investigation log totaled over 5,000 pages and 7,000 interviews. Over three days, many witnesses gave evidence, including the all-important Schmitt children. The coroner believed that there must be somebody who could shed a light on the murders. While he acknowledged that the police had already conducted exhaustive inquiries, he hoped it was possible that the investigation could be intensified. There was no doubt in the coroner's mind, quote, "The cause of death is very evident, a vicious, brutal murder." After the inquest, the police stated they would be reviewing every page of the case file in the hopes of uncovering a vital piece of information that might have been previously overlooked. They still believed that somebody out there knew something, but was withholding information either because they were protecting someone close to them or were fearful of that person. The investigation continued, but still no suspect was identified. The six sketches that the police had previously released were made into full-sized life-like dummies which were displayed at the 1967 Sydney Easter show. It was hoped the large crowds of people would be able to put names to faces, but no one could. On March 17, 1967, a 28-year-old woman named Brenda Galvan was sunbathing on Wanda Beach with her three children when she was attacked by an unknown male. A witness named Trevor Bats rushed to her aid and the attacker fled in what was described as an "old white vehicle." The description of the attacker provided by both Brenda and Trevor matched one of the six unidentified police sketches, leading many to believe that the Wanda Beach killer had attempted another attack. Despite an extensive investigation, this offender was never identified. The years passed by with no major breakthroughs in the case, but new persons of interest continued to emerge. When it comes to suspects in the murders of Mary Ann Schmitt and Christine Sharrick, three names are often thrown around. On Friday, June 10, 1966, 20-year-old Carolyn May Orphan attended a dance in Wollongong, where she met 21-year-old Alan Bassett, a fitter and turner from the nearby suburb of Unendera. Carolyn accepted a ride home from Bassett, who proceeded to kill her and dump her body on the side of a road. He was quickly identified and charged with her murder. By all reports, Alan Bassett seemed like a quiet, shy and normal guy. After he was arrested for Carolyn's murder, he claimed he had no idea what came over him and said he didn't mean to kill her. Despite the fact that she was tied up, strangled and tied over the head with a large rock, Bassett asked to be found guilty of manslaughter. Although there were notable differences between Carolyn's murder and that of Christine Sharrick, Mary Ann Schmitt, Willamena Kruger and Anna Dellenkoa, some considered Alan Bassett to be a prime suspect in those cases as well. There was the savage nature of the attack on Carolyn, combined with the fact that Unendera was only a five-minute drive from the Piccadilly shopping arcade where Willamena was killed, but within an hour's range of manoeir and wonder beach. Further investigations led police to believe that Alan Bassett was at Crunella around the time that Mary Ann and Christine were murdered. A detective named Cess Johnson, who worked the wonder beach case, grew so convinced of Alan Bassett's involvement in all four unsolved murders that he became obsessed with getting Bassett to confess. His obsession was so strong that it turned unhealthy and it was even recommended that he resign from the force. After his conviction for Carolyn's murder, Bassett was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to Morissette Psychiatric Hospital near Newcastle. Detective Cess Johnson visited him regularly and became even more convinced of his theory after Bassett gave him a painting he had drawn. The detective didn't think much of it at first considering it to be quite an ugly looking thing. But one day he took a closer look at the painting and thought it depicted the wonder beach crime scene and contained a clue that only the killer could know. Whatever that clue was has never been made public. Detective Johnson went to the press with his theory and even started writing a book, but he was killed in an accident before it was complete. While some agreed with Detective Johnson's theory, many others did not. Privately, they thought he'd become too obsessed with Bassett and was seeing things that weren't there. One person he did convince, however, was Alan Bassett's father, who went on public record saying that he believed his son was responsible for the wonder beach murders and should never be released. In 1995, Alan Bassett was released from custody and placed back in the community. He denied being involved in any crime other than the murder of Carol and Orphan. In the year 2000, Bassett publicly offered to provide a DNA sample to prove his innocence in the other cases. Whether or not the police took him up on his offer is unknown. The second name emerged on April 13, 1980. After the death of a man in the United States sparked the interest of the New South Wales police and prompted the Wanda Beach case to be re-examined. The reason why? The man was Christopher Wilder, a serial killer dubbed "The Beauty Queen Killer". Wilder was born in Sydney in 1945 and was still living there at the time that Marianne and Christine were killed. Christopher Wilder's first major run-in with the law was two years before the Wanda Beach murders, at the age of 17 when he was charged for the gang rape of a woman at another Sydney Beach. He got off with probation and electric shock therapy. In 1968, Wilder got married, but his wife left him a week later claiming sexual and physical abuse. In 1969, he lowered a 19-year-old nursing student to Manley Beach and convinced her to pose for nude photographs. He then tried to force her to have sex with him and when she refused, he threatened to blackmail her with the photos. The woman escaped and contacted police, but declined to testify against him. Later that year, Wilder immigrated to the United States and settled in Florida. It didn't take him long to find a significant wealth due to the booming construction and real estate industries. In 1971, he had his first run-in with the American authorities after he was caught trying to entice women to pose for nude photographs. The following year, he was arrested for trying to force a 16-year-old girl to have oral sex with him, but he was later acquitted of this charge. A few years later, Wilder posed as a photographer to lure a schoolgirl out of a shopping mall before drugging and raping her. He was somehow able to plea bargain this charge down to probation and therapy. In 1982, Wilder visited his parents in Australia where he abducted two 15-year-old girls, tied them up and forced them to pose for nude photographs. He was arrested soon after and his parents posted his bail. Wilder was allowed to leave Australia until his trial and it was during this wait in 1984 that he commenced a murderous rampage across nine different states of America, kidnapping a dozen women and killing eight. His ammo was to pose as a photographer and tell a girl how beautiful she was and how he could help her launch a modeling career. Since he convinced a girl to go with him to take photos, he'd them kill her. It's pretty obvious why some people think Christopher Wilder is a prime suspect for the Wonder Beach murders. He was 19 at the time, living in Sydney and turned out to be a serial killer. Although he was slightly older than the surfie teenager described by Wolfgang Schmitt, his physical description matched. However, his criminal timeline doesn't seem to match up. Wilder committed a string of sexual offences for many years before escalating to murder in 1984, 19 years after Marianne and Christine were killed. This doesn't fit the behavioral trajectory of most known serial killers. Once a serial offender crosses the threshold to murder, they rarely de-escalate back to lesser offences. This is what Wilder would have had to do if he was involved in the Wonder Beach killings, which would be almost unheard of. Then again, Wilder has also been suspected of being involved in the unsolved deduction and murder of several women both in the United States and Australia well before 1984. This includes the 1974 murder of 18-year-old Trudy Adams in Sydney. However, no definitive links to these crimes have ever been proven. By 1984, Wilder had become one of America's most wanted men. During a confrontation with police, he wounded an officer before he himself was shot dead. After his death, New South Wales police reopened the Wonder Beach case to examine any possible links between Wilder and the Wonder murders. They also requested a blood sample from Wilder in the hopes that advances in technology may one day prove whether or not he was involved. The third name, and the one that's probably thrown around the most when it comes to the murders of Marianne and Christine, is Derek Percy. Percy has been described as Australia's Hannibal Lacta, which tells you just about all you need to know about him. Many consider him to be the chief suspect in not only the Wonder Beach murders, but a number of other unsolved crimes against children committed around Australia in the late 1960s. Among them is the murder of six-year-old Alan Redstone in Canberra, three-year-old Simon Brook in Sydney, and seven-year-old Linda Stillwell in Melbourne. Some also suspect he may have been involved in the disappearance of the three Beaumont children in Adelaide, as was later covered in episode 100 of Case File. So who is Derek Percy? He was born in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Strathfield on September 15, 1948. In 1956, he moved to Victoria with his family, and they spent the next few years living in different parts of the state before moving to Mount Beauty in the state's northeast. In 1964, women's underwear started to disappear off clotheslines and from inside houses around the Mount Beauty area. There were whispers around town that 16-year-old Derek Percy was responsible. He was known to be a bit of a loner who was hard to get to know. This suspicion was never proven until later that year when two of his schoolmates made their way to a popular swimming hole and saw something so unsettling that no one believed their story. It was Derek Percy walking around dressed in a woman's pedicote. Percy didn't see the other boys, so they decided to hide and see what he was doing. They watched as Percy pulled out a knife and started stabbing a pair of women's underpants that he had with him. Once he was done, he'd defecated into the river and then walked off, taking the women's clothing with him. The boys questioned Percy about it at school, but he denied it and claimed he had no idea what they were talking about. The other kids didn't really believe the story either. They knew Percy was a bit different, but stabbing a pair of women's underpants like that seemed to be a stretch. Around this time, Percy started keeping journals in which he wrote about explicit sexual fantasies involving children. It was the beginning of an extremely dark path. By 1966, Derek Percy was living in the small New South Wales town of Cancoban just north of the Victorian border. He lowered the two young girls who lived and extorted him, the youngest of whom was just six years old, into a caravan and convinced them both to remove their pants. The girl's father caught him, but decided not to notify the police, instead leaving it to Percy's father to discipline his son. Derek's diary entries continued to get darker and increasingly violent. One entry made at this time even detailed his plan to kidnap two girls and take them to a secluded place. Percy joined the Navy in November 1967, and it was during his time as a naval officer that he abducted a 12-year-old girl named Ivan Toey from Skate Beach in Southern Victoria. Ivan had gone for a walk with her friend, 11-year-old Shane, but the pair had become briefly separated when Percy pounced. He was holding Ivan by knife-point when Shane found them. Percy tried to abduct Shane too, but Shane was carrying a tomahawk for chopping firewood and used it to threaten Percy and escape. Shane was able to describe Derek Percy and the car he was driving to the police and they captured him just hours later. Percy was arrested at the nearby Flanders naval depot where he was based, listening to a radio report about Ivan's disappearance and trying to wash her blood out of his clothes. Unfortunately, by this time, Ivan was already dead. A search of Percy's belongings revealed sickening journal entries and drawings depicting the rape, torture and murder of children. Ivan had an entry detailing his desire to kidnap a young boy and girl, just as he had attempted to do a few hours earlier. The murder of Ivan Toey was one of the worst cases that hardened detectives had ever seen. Derek Percy stood trial at the Melbourne Supreme Court in April 1970. The six days he was. found not guilty by reason of insanity and was ordered to be kept in custody at the governor's leisure, or in other words, indefinitely. Fortunately, that's where he remained until his death in 2013. Ivan's murder was the only crime he was ever charged with, but he was questioned and suspected in many others. Percy never confessed to any of the other crimes, but he didn't exactly deny involvement either. During his incarceration, many more drawings and diary entries were found that outlined he sick fantasies. One rape, torture and murder journal was so organized that it even had an index. Percy has been described as a sadistic pedophile with a morbid and sexual attraction to fecal matter, who views killing as the ultimate sexual act. We could do a whole podcast on Derek Percy and the other crimes he is linked to, which may happen in the future. But the main question for today is, was Percy involved in the murders of Mary Ann Schmitt and Christine Sharrick? There is no clear evidence linking him to Wanda Beach, but there is one loose circumstantial detail to suggest that's a possibility. The Percy family had a keen interest in sailing. In January 1965, the National Moth Class Regatta was being held at Botany Bay Yacht Club, which isn't too far from Wanda Beach. This is the very class of sailing the purses were interested in. It has been suspected, although never proven, that the Percy family were in Sydney for this regatta. Derek Percy would have been 16 at the time. If they were indeed there, it is likely they would have been staying at Percy's Grandmother's House in Deniston, which is the neighboring suburb to West Ride. To get to the beach, he would have had to travel on the exact same train line as Mary Ann and Christine. Remember when they were approached by a teenage male on the train between Ride and Redfern? Percy didn't fit the description of the surfie teenager provided by Wolfgang Schmitt, but some claim he was a match for one of the six suspect sketches released by the police that were later turned into life-sized dummies. It was later revealed that when Percy's journals were found, one contained a newspaper article about the Wanda Beach murders that had obscene comments written on it. However, this was a rumor that had gotten a bit twisted. It was actually an article from Playboy magazine titled "Wicked Wonder" that had nothing at all to do with the murders. There is no evidence tying Derek Percy to Wanda Beach. Some believe he is guilty, while others don't. If he was involved, he took his secret to the grave, and only advancements in DNA technology might be able to prove for sure if Percy was the Wanda Beach killer. In 2012, there was a major break in the investigation when technological advancements allowed police to retest the clothing worn by Mary Ann and Christine at the time they were killed. They were in luck. DNA revealed a spot of blood belonging to a male, however the DNA profile was so weak that further testing couldn't be conducted. With the technology expected to advance further in the years to come, it is hoped that a full DNA profile will be obtained in the future. What about the semen sample? The problem is that back in 1965, DNA testing didn't exist and police could never have imagined the technologies that would one day be available. Unfortunately, this may have led to less than ideal handling of the evidence, and at some point over the years, that semen sample has been lost. The status of the broken knife blade is unknown. While the original investigators had determined there was blood on the knife, they couldn't test it any further. Next testing might be possible today, but there is no information to confirm whether the piece of knife blade still exists, or if testing has been done. The Wonder Beach case has always remained open, and the $20,000 reward is still available. Incredibly, the figure has never been increased, not even to match inflation. It may be time for the reward to be reviewed. Was Alan Bassett Christopher Wilder or Derek Percy responsible for the Wonder Beach murders, or was it someone else entirely? Has his name already been given to police, buried amongst the thousands of pages that make up the case file, or lost amongst the hundreds of calls that were coming in daily, and thousands of leads police had to chase down? Or is it someone completely unknown who was managed to avoid detection all these years? Is there someone out there who was at Wonder Beach that day and saw something but is still too scared to come forward? Many think there is. A number of people seen at the beach never came forward and still haven't been identified. 1965 was a different time. Not only was homosexuality still illegal and considered a psychiatric disorder, society held a very dim view of some of the other behaviours that went on in the sand hills. Thankfully, times have changed, and we can only hope that if anyone did see or hear anything, they might still be alive and come forward. While this person might think the information they hold is insignificant, it could be the vital piece of the puzzle that's needed to finally solve the case and bring answers to the families of Mary Ann Schmetz and Christine Sharrick. Unfortunately, since this episode first aired in 2016, there have been no major updates in the Wonder Beach investigation. No further DNA advancements have been reported, no new testing announced, and the $20,000 reward remains unchanged. 61 years on, the case continues to sit open and unsolved, awaiting the crucial piece of information or technological breakthrough that might finally reveal the identity of the killer. This is Casevile. Thanks for listening. See you next episode. [Music]