Victoria Cafasso (Unsolved Murder)

In mid 1995 Italian law student Victoria Cafasso decided to defer her studies and take some time out. The 20 year old travelled to Tasmania, Australia, staying with a distant relative while she thought through her options. She arrived in Beaumaris, a small seaside town on the north east coast of the island state, on October 6th. Five days later Victoria took a short walk to the local beach to do a spot of sunbathing. Just a few hours later her body was found on the shoreline. Victoria had been the victim of a frenzied attack and had suffered multiple stab wounds. Over the years there have been several persons of interest and in 2023 there has been a new development in the case.

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Transcript

Victoria Cafasso

In July 1995 Victoria Cafasso felt like her life was in need of a change.  The blue-eyed, blonde-haired 20 year old had been studying law at university in Italy for the last year or so but took the bold decision to defer her studies. Her father Giuseppe, a criminal lawyer himself, was not best pleased with Victoria’s choice, but her mind was made up. Victoria loved to travel and wanted the opportunity to see more of the world. 

Victoria had lived most of her life in Ospedaletti on the Italian Riviera with her parents and younger sister, though she had dual Italian/English citizenship. Victoria was born in Surrey in the south of England on June 8th 1975 and carried a British passport. She regularly spent time in England with her maternal grandparents. Victoria had travelled to other parts of the globe with her mother Xenia many times. Xenia managed a travel company which was owned by her family, and Victoria had even worked as a tour guide for the business in the past. She now wanted to spread her wings as an independent traveller. In the summer of 1995 Victoria went to stay with her grandparents in Hampshire, England to think through her options. 

Victoria already spoke fluent Italian, French and English but while in England she enrolled on a language course at Portsmouth University. The course was not scheduled to start until August 1996, so in the meantime Victoria planned to go on some adventures. She had always wanted to visit Australia and made plans to stay with a male relative who was a writer, currently living in Tasmania. The relative’s name is in the public domain but I will refer to him by the initial S, in order to maintain his privacy. Victoria didn’t know S very well as they had only met on two occasions but the young man readily agreed to let Victoria come out and join him for a while.

Victoria arrived at Launceston airport in the north of Tasmania at 1.50pm on Friday October 6th 1995. It had been quite a trip, she had flown from the UK via Hong Kong and Melbourne. Victoria’s relative S and his friend, intial P came to collect her from the airport. From the city of Launceston it was a two hour drive east to the coastal town of Beaumaris where S lived. 

Beaumaris is a small seaside town situated between the towns of Scamander and St Helens on the north east coast of Tasmania. Its population is only 350, and there are around 150 properties. It gets slightly busier during the summer months but is still a pretty tranquil area. The sandy beach at Beaumaris is not a popular holiday destination and has more of a wild and desolate feel. It's the kind of place people go to retire for a more relaxed pace of living. A community where, historically, doors and windows were left unlocked.

Before taking Victoria to his rental property, S first parked up at Shelley's Point on the southern end of Beaumaris beach. S was a keen surfer and he wanted to indulge his passion while the waves were looking good. At the beach S introduced Victoria to three friends who lived locally: Mark, Mario and a young woman who worked as a part-time music teacher named Hilda Jackson. Hilda bore a slight resemblance to Victoria, both were around 5 feet 10 (Hilda was 176cm and Victoria 178cm)  and both had long blonde hair. Nearby was a lookout from which one could view the entire 4 km stretch of the beach. Victoria was apparently overawed by the beauty of the surroundings. 

After S finished surfing he took Victoria back to his rental home, called “Larbys Cottage”, situated on Charles Street, a stones throw from the sandy beach.

Between Victoria's arrival in Beaumaris on Friday October 6th and Wednesday October 11th she had very little contact with the local population. During this time Victoria attended one social event, a small birthday party held for S’s landlady, Mandy, on the evening of Monday the 9th. Those who did meet her said she was warm and engaging. During those five days Victoria also went for two walks on the beach. On Monday 9th while out on a walk she called into the house of Hilda Jackson, who she had met on her first day. The pair spent an hour or so chatting and made vague plans to visit the beach together, though nothing was confirmed. Victoria went out for her second walk on Tuesday 10th. On this occasion she visited no one.

On Wednesday October 11th Victoria awoke and had breakfast with S. At 8.10am she mentioned to S she planned on taking a walk to the beach later that morning. S planned to stay at home and work on his novel. Victoria left the house at 9am and headed in the direction of Beaumaris beach. 

Around this time a married couple witnessed a young blonde woman walking toward the coast. The man first said he believed the woman was Hilda Jackson (as I have said, the two looked similar) but his wife later said it was definitely Victoria. It is believed that Victoria walked onto the sandy beach via a footpath opposite the Surfside motel, situated on the Tasman highway. The highway runs parallel to the coast line, splitting the town, though the vast majority of dwellings are on the inland side. Beaumaris beach lies just 75m from the edge of the highway, with grass covered dunes acting as a barrier between the two.

Hilda Jackson also saw Victoria on the way to the beach. Hilda lived in Scamander, less than 2km away and went for a run almost every day along the sand at Beaumaris, normally at around midday. Today she left a little earlier at 10am. She ran in the opposite direction to Victoria, heading north against the wind as it would make for an easier return home. 

Another local woman named Iris was out taking a walk when she saw a young woman sunbathing on the beach. The woman had a light brownish skirt and a darker top which she described as being a sleeveless singlet. At first, she too thought it was Hilda Jackson before realising it was not. Like Hilda the woman was tall but she had a stronger build. This sighting is believed to have been Victoria and is calculated to have been 700m from the footpath by which she had entered the beach. Iris noticed the women at 9.55am and again at 10.10am. 

At 1.30pm local resident Margaret M was walking her dog along Beaumaris Beach near the area known as Freshwater creek. As Margaret enjoyed the pleasant stroll and sea air she suddenly saw something that turned her stomach. There at the water's edge lay what appeared to be a human body. Time stood still for Margaret as the small waves washed over the lifeless form. 

Hi, it’s John here, just letting you know that I'll be taking a short break over the Christmas period. The next episode will be out on Monday January 8th 2024. Thank you again for listening and to all those who have reached out to get in touch.  If you haven’t done a review yet please consider it as would be a great Christmas gift for me! You can now do this on Spotify as there is a little “What did you think of this episode?” question in the show notes.  

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not it can be a difficult time of year for many so I hope you all find some peace and joy whatever you are doing. 

Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda

Merry Christmas and Happy new year

In horror at the sight before her, Margaret turned.and hurried to a nearby house. There she found two men, Geoffrey A and Russel H, and informed the pair of what she had seen. All three rushed to the shoreline. There was no doubting the truth of Margaret’s story. It was the dead body of a young woman. 

The body was naked from the waist down. On the upper half  was only a blue and white floral patterned bikini top which had been pulled up, exposing the breasts. It was evident that the face, head, and upper body had been stabbed repeatedly. Later reports suggested the body had been almost scalped. Russel and Margaret went back to the house to call the police and report what they had found. Geoffrey remained with the body. 

In all, Geoffrey waited about twenty minutes before the first police officers arrived at the scene. During that time he reported noticing two footprints in the sand, 6 to 7 metres from the body. To his eyes they looked like they had been made by the bare feet of a man. He noticed that the front part of the foot was deeper than the ankle and they were pointed toward the sea. Later Police said they did not see these particular footprints and so no photographs or casts were ever taken. They disappeared under the incoming tide or were blown away by the coastal wind. 

Later that afternoon Victoria’s relative S was in the post office at Beaumaris when the police came in and told him that the body of a blonde woman had been found on the beach. When the officer described the woman his immediate thought was that it was Hilda Jackson, as he knew she took a run on the beach daily. He soon realised the officers were actually describing Victoria. Later that evening he had the unenviable task of formally identifying the body. It was 20 year old Victoria Anna Elizabeth Cafasso.

Hearing the news Victoria's parents  Giuseppe and Xenia travelled over from Italy as soon as they could. Their world had literally collapsed overnight. The devastated couple visited the beach where their eldest daughter had died. Xenia was seen bending down to scoop up a handful of sand to take away with her. Giuseppe made the sign of the cross and said a prayer. When they arrived back in Italy they found a letter sent from Victoria two days before her death. In the Sunday Morning Herald, October 12th  2015, Xenia described reading it as “like hearing a voice from the grave.”

A memorial service was held for Victoria on November 25th in Beaulieu, Hampshire, England. This was near to where Victoria's grandparents lived. Devastatingly just a day or so later, Victoria’s father Giuseppe Cafasso died from a heart attack. Victoria and Giuseppe were buried next to each other in their home town of Ospedaletti, Italy.

An experienced police officer, Detective Inspector Graham Hickey, returned from working interstate to take charge of the investigation into Victoria’s murder. Investigators got to work  making extensive enquiries in the community. Public meetings were held, and criminal psychologists were sought out for assistance. However, much attention has been paid to the few hours following the discovery of the body

The first officers at the beach that day were Sergeant Galloway, Senior Constable Peddler and Constable Ferguson. (As a note, almost a decade later at the Coronial Inquest coroner Don Jones made reference to another officer who claimed to have arrived at the scene before anyone else. Jones dismissed this idea and was content that the three officers mentioned were there first). There is some confusion about exactly what happened when the officers first arrived, regarding their course of action, movements of people and the state of the tide. Photographs were taken but there was uncertainty over which officer had taken which photograph. 

There was debate about whether the body was moved after it was first discovered. The coroner would later conclude that the body had been moved but he was content that this had been in an attempt to prevent evidence from being washed away by the appraoching seawater. One of the witnesses at the scene, Geoffrey A, was told by police to go and find a tarpaulin in order to cover the body. This decision was later criticised by the coroner Don Jones but again it was accepted that the intention was to preserve potential vital evidence from the elements. Sergeant Galloway was a senior detective and knew how to treat a crime scene, having worked many violent crimes in the past. He later told the 2003 coronial inquest that Launceston Criminal investigation branch gave permission for the tarp to be used. Coroner Jones agreed this was true. 

52 m north of the body was a 2.5 m x 2.5 m area of disturbed sand, where it looked as though a violent struggle had ensued. This was referred to as the crime scene. Near this location several personal items belonging to Victoria were found. These objects were scattered over 8.5 m from the crime scene, most were found to the north. These items were: white sand shoes, a multi-coloured duffle style shoulder bag, a flask of water, a Sony Walkman, Sunglasses (said to be a John Lennon style pair), sun screen, a watch, a gold ring and a bangle. The glasses and ring were undamaged but the bangle was broken and the watch strap had come apart.

Victoria's purse with some of her ID documents were also found. Quite a large amount of foreign currency totalling the equivalent of $1700 Australian dollars and $509 Australian dollars was also inside. 

While awaiting detectives from Launceston and the forensic team, Constable Ferguson conducted a cursory search of the immediate vicinity. The officer walked north from the body and came across a set of footprints. They were parallel to each other and seemed to be going towards the crime scene. It looked to Ferguson like there were two kinds of prints: one made by a sand shoe and one made by a barefoot female. From here Constable Ferguson walked west away from the sea toward the highway until he reached an overhanging sandbank. Here he found another set of prints that went from the sandbak toward the crime scene. 

Before joining the police force Constable Ferguson had worked in a shoe shop. He was able to give a good description of the prints he followed from the sandbank. They had a ripple pattern on the sole and were markedly different from the sand shoes he had seen further down the beach. I believe they were estimated to be an Australian size 10. Sadly no cast or measurement was ever taken of this shoe print. Constable Ferguson later told the coroner's inquest that he regretted not putting down his jacket over the top of some of the prints in order to protect them from the wind. They now only exist in Constable Ferguson’s memory, but he is convinced they were connected to Victoria's murder.

There was a slight delay but eventually a forensic team from Launceston did attend the scene, as well as a forensic pathologist and forensic scientist from Forensic science services Tasmania. Frustratingly only one footprint on the beach was made into a cast. I believe it is a bare food imprint. To this day it has never completely proven that this isn't Victoria's own footprint. 

As I have alluded to, the 2003 coronial inquest was critical of the way the crime scene was handled. While Coroner Jones recognized the difficulties of having a crime scene on a beach exposed to the elements, he drew attention to the following errors and failings. The State pathologist did not attend the scene. The crime scene was not cordoned off quickly enough. There was possible contamination of evidence due to the use of the tarpaulin. The crime scene was not recorded on video. The lack of coordination between local police and the Criminal Investigation Branch. That only one cast was taken of the many footprints found on the beach.

On Thursday October 12th an autopsy was carried out at Royal Hobart hospital by state forensic pathologist Dr Tim Lyons. Cause of death was due to multiple stab wounds including two fatal stab wounds to the chest which pierced the right atrium of the heart. It was initially recorded that Victoria had suffered a total of 21 stab wounds. In a review of the pathology report by then state pathologist Dr Chris Lawrence in 2002 this number was reduced to 17. The wounds were located on the shoulder, neck, and chest. There was one stab wound on the right side of the body. There were other slashes and lacerations on the arms, legs, torso and neck. 

Two weapons had been used in the attack. One was blunt and the other sharp and pointed. The latter was thought to be a 20cm long, thick bladed hunting or diving knife. Neither weapon has thus far been located. It was theorised that the blunt object was used first, with the initial blows coming to the buttocks and right arm, possibly indicating the attacker came from behind. Victoria was then hit on the face. This blow fractured her alveolar bone and the bridge of the nose. The force also knocked three teeth from the upper jaw. Horrificly, these teeth were not found at the scene and one can only speculate what happened to them. This blow to the face would have likely caused Victoria to lose consciousness. The multiple stab wounds then followed.

The verocity of the attack would have caused Victoria to yell and scream for help. Yet no one heard or saw a thing. This attack happened in broad daylight and it was estimated that around fifty people had been on the beach between 8.30am and 1.30pm. It was speculated that the noise of the surf and wind may have drowned out any calls for help. The large dunes were also said to have muffled the sound.

Other injuries sustained by Victoria included bruising on the right wrist and abrasions on the left wrist. These may have been caused by a watch strap. The right hand was also fractured. The forearms and hands displayed defensive wounds, showing that Victoria had fought back against her attacker. The defensive wounds were all made by a blunt object which further suggested that Victoria was likely unconscious when the stabbing began. Luminol tests on the body showed that Victoria may have drawn her attacker's blood during her fight back.

Due to the body laying in saltwater it was said that no usable DNA evidence could be recovered. Blood and fibre samples were found but nothing which was said to identify the killer. 

It could not be ascertained whether the attack was carried out by a right or left handed prison. Though interestingly almost all the stab wounds were apparently to Victoria's right hand side, which has led to the theory the attacker may have been left handed. 

There were no clear signs of sexual assault. Swabs were taken but no semen was discovered. A sexual motive cannot be written off as it is worth remembering that Victoria was found naked from the waist down and her breasts had been exposed. 

The exact time of death was difficult to pinpoint as the body temperature readings were skewed by the undetermined length of time the body had been laying in the water. Some complex maths were carried out with the assistance of a harbour master from St Helens who was an expert at local tides. From these calculations a window of 11.30am-12.40pm was given. An oceanographer from the Atlantic research centre honed this time to 12.15pm, with a window of 20 minutes either side. When checking alibis the police focused on a 11.30am-12.40pm time frame.

The question of how Victoria ended over 50 m up the beach from what the police believed was the location of the attack was a bit of a mystery. It was eventually concluded that in all likelihood the killer dragged Victoria's body by the wrists into the water. It was theorised they did this to wash blood and other forensic evidence from themselves and the body. They may have  panicked and hoped that Victoria’s body would be taken out to sea. Of course the tide was coming in and it is thought the current took the body 50m or so south along the shoreline.

There was a problem pinning down what clothes Victoria had been wearing on the beach that morning. I mentioned earlier that the witness named Iris said she saw a woman sunbathing on the beach wearing a brown skirt and dark singlet but this is at odds with other accounts. Victoria's mother Xenia and her grandmother went through Victoria's possessions at S’s rental cottage to see what was missing in an attempt to determine her attire. From their search it is believed Victoria was wearing a dark blue t-shirt with the face of a wolf emblazoned on the front. The relative S confirmed that Victoria had been wearing this before leaving for the beach. Coroner Jones would later find no evidence that she was wearing said t-shirt.

It is also thought Victoria was wearing light grey or green size 16 tracksuit style trousers from the store Marks and Spencer. Underneath she had on a blue and white floral bikini. As mentioned the top half of the bikini was found with the body. The bottom half was not.  

Despite numerous searches throughout the locality none of the clothing other than the bikini top has ever been found. Not long after the murder a pile of women's underwear was found in bushland but it was confirmed not to belong to Victoria. Also missing was a single shell necklace which Victoria wore around her neck tied by a red piece of cord and a large chocolate brown beach towel with a cheetah or leopard print. There is a theory that the killer used this to clean blood from themselves after the frenzied attack. 

Within days of Victoria's murder there was speculation by the media and police that there could be a connection to the unsolved disappearance of a German backpacker Nancy Grunwaldt in 1993. The 26 year old was an experienced traveller, having visited 14 countries, including a previous trip to Australia. Like Victoria, Nancy had worked as a tour guide and was multilingual, speaking German, French and English. 

Nancy was last seen around 7 km from Beaumaris beach and 5km from the town of Scamander on March 12th 1993. The young woman had been on a cycling holiday and was on route to Hobart to meet a penpal. The night before she had stayed at a youth hostel in St Helens. She  left there between 9.30 and 10.30am on the morning of the 12th. Nancy cycled to Beaumaris, and bought a soft drink at the Surfside motel. She then wandered onto the beach, incidentally by the same route that Victoria would take 2 and a half years later. 

Nancy was seen sitting and reading a book on the soft sand. Witnesses last saw Nancy at the side of the highway taking off her jumper. It was warm that day. The red marauder mountain bike she had hired was leaning against a post. No one has seen Nancy since. 

There was a delay of over a month before Nancy was reported missing. When she didn't show up in Hobart her penpal presumed that Nancy had not had time to make the trip. It was only when she missed a prearranged meeting in Adelaide weeks later that the alarm was raised. Despite extensive searches no trace of Nancy or any of her belongings, including her tortoiseshell glasses, camera and the hire bike have ever been found. Nancy's bank account has not been accessed since that day.

At an inquest In March 2004 coroner Peter Wilson stated that it was likely that Nancy had been murdered. In her excellent 2014 book Tasmania's Beaumaris Beach Mystery: What happened to Nancy and Victoria?, author Melanie Calvert also gives details of two attempted rapes that took place on the beach, one in 1986 and another in 1994. Neither case was ever solved, although in the latter a person was interviewed but never charged. 

After Victoria’s murder the State Assistant Commissioner for Crime, Luppo Prins, confirmed that Nancy's case was being re-examined. There is still speculation online as to whether the cases are connected. Detectives from Tasmania were sent on a course at the FBI academy on serial killers and police did investigate a possible connection but I've read in several sources that a link has been discarded. I will come back to this point towards the end of the episode.  

In terms of Victoria’s murder, no motive could be firmly established. Robbery was ruled out because of the large amount of money left at the scene. While there was no evidence of sexual penetration, there certainly seemed to have been a sexual element. But why Victoria? It didn't appear to police that this could have been a random attack but at the same time she had been in the country for less than a week and had had limited contact with locals.

Within the first few days of the murder police did look into a possible link with Italian organised crime. During the 1970s Victoria's grandfather had been the Chief of Police in Rome. The Tasmania police were under the assumption that at one point the Cafasso family had been under Italian police protection. The State's Assistant Crime Commissioner did probe this angle and Interpol investigated whether there were any threats against the family. This proved not to be the case and any connection to organised crime was discounted.

There was also a train of thought that Victoria's murder had been the result of a mistaken identity; the intended target being local resident Hilda Jackson. 

An ABC news article from October 2020 details an unsettling encounter Hilda had on Beaumaris beach two weeks before the murder. Hilda was out for her daily run when a man who she noticed loitering by the dunes started to walk towards her. He came uncomfortably close to Hilda and asked if she knew the quickest route off the beach. Something felt odd about the way the man was acting. Hilda brushed the man off and went for a swim in the sea. The man stayed on the beach and continued to stare at her while she swam. Hilda felt unsafe and headed swiftly home. 

Back at her house Hilda found that the underwear she had put out ready to wear after her run was missing. Like so many local people, Victoria did not always keep her house secured and she had left a side door to the property unlocked. Other local women, including a teenage girl, informed police that underwear had gone missing from clotheslines over the previous month.

I will be coming back to Hilda’s account when I detail the persons of interest that have cropped up in the case.

In the weeks following the murder the police had Hilda continue her daily runs on the beach while they watched from the cover of the sand dunes. They thought the assailant might try another attack. During these runs Hilda carried a hidden fishing knife strapped to her ankle for protection. Nothing suspicious was ever seen during these attempts to flush out the perpetrator. However, in the aforementioned 2014 book by Melanie Calvert, the author writes about an incident that occurred at the beach on November 19th 1995. That day Hilda was running on the beach when two men she knew approached her saying they had seen a man hanging around in the dunes. When the man saw he had been noticed he lifted his t-shirt up to cover his face. The man is said to have been aged 29-35, clean shaven with dark hair. He stood at 5ft 9 or 174 cm. 

Police inquiries throughout the community  brought forward several sightings of note in the vicinity of Beaumaris beach at the time of the murder. Much of this information was shared at the coronial inquest in 2003.

A woman named Gertrude came forward to say around 30 minutes before the murder is believed to have taken place she saw a man in a wetsuit near the scene of the crime. The woman talked of having a sense of foreboding when clasping eyes on the man. She quickly turned around and walked in the opposite direction. Gertrude also noticed a parked red sedan car which, in her opinion, looked like it had been deliberately hidden close to some bushes. Near this spot she saw the same man running from the beach car park. This was around 11.15am. She said he looked wet and described him as tall,with short dark hair and a slim build. 

Another woman named Karen  saw a man in the car park about 30 minutes after the time frame given for the murder, at approximately 1pm. This man was tall, solidly built with dark hair which reached his collar.  The woman later claimed to have seen this man again a few months later in January 1996. After being shown photographs she was able to identify him. I will expand on this point when I go through the persons of interest. 

A local farmer named Bruce said at about 11.15-30 am he had been driving through Beaumaris when all of a sudden, without so much as a glance, a man ran full pace across the road in front of him. Bruce described the man as a surfer type in his early 20’s with a wiry build and long dark hair. He was wearing a dark shirt with red knee length shorts. Melanie Calvert details in her book that a few months later Bruce saw a picture of Victoria's relative S in the newspaper. Bruce felt uneasy after seeing the picture. I believe Melanie Calvert got this information from an article titled  quote “Running Man went “Full-bore” to Beach” end quote in the Examiner newspaper 2003. 

At the coronial inquest another point of interest was detailed by Police Officer Charles Stingel of the St Marys police. St Marys is a town 20 minutes drive to the south west of Beaumaris. This involved Victoria's relative, S. I've already mentioned that S first heard that something had happened at the beach when he was in the local post office. I'm not sure how that detail fits with the following story.  

Officer Stingel said S turned up on a motorbike at Freshwater car park, Beaumaris beach at 3.40pm on the day in question. S said he had heard of an incident at the beach and had gone home to check if Victoria was there. He then immediately came to the beach. Officer Stingel claimed that S did not seem to be surprised that Victoria was involved in the incident. Of course if S had already been told that a body had been found while in the post office, this is not that surprising.

In total four separate identikits were drawn up of people the police were keen to identify and trace. These were never released to the public as investigators feared that might lead to confusion and false information. 

In a moment I'll take you through some of the individuals that have been looked into in Victoria's case. First it is worth mentioning that an offender profile was drawn up by DI Killmier of the Australia Violent Crime Analysis centre, part of the Australia Bureau of Criminal Intelligence. The man was likely a local who knew the area well. He was likely a family man who was prone to unpredictable outbursts. It was believed the man's family knew, or suspected, what he had done and were covering for him. This may have been out of fear. The attack itself was frenzied and there seemed to be a lot of hatred behind it. I have read there was a thought the killer may have been under the influence of drugs. As mentioned, Victoria was a tall powerful woman, she weighed 83 kg so whoever overpowered her would have needed to be exceedingly strong. It's worth saying here that Coroner Don Jones did not rule out the possibility that two men were involved in the murder. A point he has stressed several times over the years.

During the course of the investigation Tasmania police have put a massive amount of time and resources into finding the guilty party. Investigators handled 1200 information reports from the public and around 300 individuals have been nominated as potential suspects. I will go through the persons of interest who over the last few decades have been divulged by the police and in the media.

April 28th 1996 was a dark day for the people of Tasmania. In the tourist town of Port Arthur in the far south of Tasmania, 28 year old Martin Bryant murdered 35 people and injured 23 in one of the worst mass killings in Australian history. Unusually for a crime like this Bryant was captured alive. For this evil and cowardly act he was sentenced to 35 life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Bryant enjoyed surfing and was known to have spent time on the east coast of Tasmania. In the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre DI Graham Hickey who was leading the investigation into Victoria’s murder asked Hobart detectives to search Bryant's properties. They were asked to look for any of Victoria's personal items that I listed as missing from the crime scene. 

Bryant was also looked at in connection with Nancy Grunwaldt’s disappearance and the 1995 murder of Hobart pensioner Leo Rogers, who was viciously stabbed to death in his own home. Nothing incriminating was found linking him to any of the cases. While he remains a person of interest in other suspicious deaths, notably that of his own father in 1993  and an older female companion in 1992, police have ruled him out as being involved in Victoria’s murder. 

Shortly after Victoria's murder there were two local men who came under intense scrutiny from police. The names of both men are in the public domain but I have decided to keep them anonymous, as coroner Don Jones concluded that neither man had any involvement in Victoria's death. 

 One of the men, who is often referred to as the Biker as he belonged to a motorcycle club, was described as a bit of a loner. In the past the man had been shot in the head and these injuries had affected his behaviour.

The Biker had given two conflicting statements to police about the day of the murder. On one occasion he said he had been with his girlfriend in Hobart but this had then changed. He put the inconsistencies down to having a poor memory due to his head injury.

At the inquest a fellow member of the Motorcycle club, who also happened to be a retired police officer, gave evidence about the Biker. The retired officer claimed the Biker had been in Hobart the night before the murder and had experienced a humiliating rejection by a sex worker. The Biker had left Hobart between 8.30am and 9am on the day of the murder. Hobart to Beaumaris is a three hour drive. So technically he could have got there in time to commit the murder.

The Biker had a quick temper and had been involved in violent incidents in the past. According to an article in the Sydney Morning herald from October 2015 the Biker had brought up Victoria’s murder in conversation and talked about how he fitted the police profile of the killer. The retired police officer said the Biker had told him he knew who had killed Victoria and said the same person had also murdered Nancy Grunwaldt. The Biker would not divulge the person’s name.

Around the time of Victoria's murder the Biker displayed an obvious injury on his left arm, though he claimed he got this from punching a wooden door. He was known to carry a knife and a former girlfriend spoke of him displaying acts of cruelty towards animals, including killing a pony. On the day of the murder he was seen by acquaintances at around 12.10pm and again at 1pm acting strangely and on edge. They noted he was not wearing his usual boots but instead had opted for flip flops. 

The other local person of interest was from the town of Scamander, a five minute drive from Beaumaris. He worked on fishing boats and is commonly referred to as the Fisherman. In November 1995 Hilda Jackson identified this 35 year old Fisherman as the man who had approached her on the beach and stared at her while she was swimming. Police suspected he had been following Hilda over the month or so before the murder. The Fisherman always denied this accusation. 

The Fisherman was questioned extensively about Victoria's murder and the theft of women’s underwear from around the town over the previous few months. Like the Biker, it was alleged by someone close to him that he had displayed violence towards animals in the past, including killing a pet dog and possibly a cat. The Fisherman was left handed. 

The eye witness named Karen who saw a man in the beach car park at approximately 1 pm and again saw said man several months later identified him as the fisherman. At the time police didn't put much credence in this sighting as they believed whoever had killed Victoria would not have hung around but tried to make a fast getaway. 

The aforementioned Sydney Morning Herald Article from 2015 states that a few years after Victoria's murder the Fisherman was given a restraining order by a 17 year old girl for displaying inappropriate interest in her. The article also says that the Fisherman proved uncooperative during the coronial inquest.

In January 2004, while the inquest was ongoing, a red, blood-stained jacket was found in Dianas Basin, a five minute drive from Beaumaris. It was discovered by a couple who were  camping at the beauty spot. During their night out under the stars the couple spoke of seeing the ghostly face of a blond haired woman amongst the long reeds. The man and woman were spooked but returned to the spot a week later to have a look around. Nearby, in an area close to a public toilet block, they found a rolled up sheet of corrugated iron. Inside was the blood stained jacket.

It was thought the jacket could be connected to Victoria's murder. The jacket did not belong to Victoria herself but the item was said to bear the name of a local school girl. The girl was the daughter of the persons of interest I have referred to as the Fisherman. This fact obviously caused a lot of  speculation, especially when the presence of blood was confirmed. Blond hair and dark hair, as well as male DNA was detected on the jacket. However, forensic tests proved none of the biological material belonged to Victoria or the Fisherman or his daughter. Coroner Jones' verdict was that the jacket had been deliberately planted at the scene, though he could not begin to understand the motive for this act.

I can certainly see why both the Fisherman and Biker became persons of interest. Both appeared at the inquest hearing in 2003. I also understand that both men were friends with each other. It was also alleged that the Fisherman was an acquaintance of Victoria's relative S.  

The Biker and the Fisherman were questioned intensely at the inquest but as it was not a trial they were not permitted legal counsel. Regardless of other wrongdoings the coroner was content that neither man was responsible for Victoria murder. The Fisherman was able to produce a strong alibi and the coroner said the man would need to be able to walk on water to have been at the location in order to commit the murder. 

There is a third person of interest that has been connected to the case, though this man did not appear at the inquest in person. 

This man's name has been shared openly by various news sources over the years but I will refer to him only as the Doctor. In 1995 The Doctor was 40 years old. He hailed from Slovakia  and trained in medicine, specifically obstetrics and gynaecology, qualifying in 1980. He worked in France and Germany for a time and was practising in Slovakia before seeking work in Australia in 1993. 

The Doctor had a wife and children back in Slovakia but got a divorce and married a woman named Rose shortly after arriving in Australia. The couple then moved to Singapore. In August 1995 the Doctor was sentenced to a month in prison for threatening his wife with a knife. He threatened to kill her and sell her ovaries on the black market. The Doctor was said to have an obsession with knives and own several. In order to further frighten Rose he would craft small nooses and leave them on her bedside table. 

After being released from prison the Doctor was deported by the Singapore authorities and sent back to Australia. He was living in St Helens, 6 km away from Beaumaris, at the time of Victoria's murder. He moved away from the town just weeks later, apparently leaving many personal possessions behind. 

It was two years later in 1997 following a domestic incident that he was interviewed by police in connection with Victoria's murder. He claimed to have been at home ill at the time of the murder, though no one was able to corroborate this. He said he had never been to Beaumaris beach though his ex-wife Rose has said this is not true. He even admitted to a former girlfriend that he had been at the beach on the morning of the murder. A witness who was driving past the beach saw a man acting suspiciously in some bushes on the side of the road. She later said the man looked alot like the Doctor.

In 2009 the investigative television programme 60 minutes produced a documentary titled “Suspect” that firmly pointed the finger at the Doctor. The presenter is seen walking down the street pursuing the Doctor asking him all manner of questions about Victoria's murder. The Doctor tries to ignore the presenter though he appears very irritated

In the documentary a man named Rod who owned a service station near Beaumaris said that a man driving a white rental car came to his establishment around the time of the murder. He’d visited a couple of times previously but this time the man had a noticeable scratch on his top lip. Rod had gone to police about this at the time of the murder but it doesn't seem it was followed up at that time.  Rod later identified the man he’d seen as the Doctor.

It is now known that the Doctor was out and about on the morning of the murder, as he visited the police station in St Helens to inquire about changing his foreign driver's licence to an Australian one. He also hired a white rental car that day, returning it 24 hours later. The rental company records note that there was an unusual amount of sand in the footwell of the car when it was returned by the Doctor. According to the 60 minutes documentary a white car was spotted near the beach on the morning of the murder.

The Doctor's third wife, Sally, whom he met just ten days after Victoria’s murder, recalls that he had scratches that were healing on his face at the time. The Doctor insisted that these scratches were caused from a fall he had when drunk.

Shortly after the murder the Doctor left for a job at the royal Hobart hospital and worked there between 1996 and 97. He was eventually fired for failing to disclose the prison sentence he had served in Singapore. The Doctor then worked in New South Wales before moving to New Zealand. Serious complaints followed him wherever he went.

At Lismore hospital in New South Wales, several women complained that he spoke to them in a misogynist, derogatory way. There were also accusations that he had stitched patients without using local anaesthetic and had failed to administer pain relief when needed. In New Zealand he was accused of botching several sterilisation operations.  As I have alluded to, the Doctor also had a drink problem and was reprimanded for being drunk while in work on several occasions throughout his medical career.

In 2008 he was suspended from working in medicine in both New Zealand and New South Wales. In 2012 the medical tribunal of New South Wales found him guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct. They also decreed he had an impairment which affected his capacity to practise medicine. This impairment was the result of a head injury after a drunken fall.

The picture painted of the Doctor in the 60 minutes documentary is of an abusive man who could outwardly appear charming but at his core enjoyed humiliating, degrading and harming  women. According to his third wife Sally (who later divorced him) she suffered firsthand his propensity for violence, claiming he once broke some of her ribs. Sally apparently once asked the Doctor if he had killed Victoria. He replied: maybe, I don’t know. 

Shockingly the 60 minutes documentary also claims the Doctor was a suspect in the murder of 19 year old medical student Ludmila Cervanova in Slovakia in 1976. He had been at a party the young woman had attended shortly before she was raped and murdered. A group of men were sentenced for the crime in 1981 but there seems to be much debate over their guilt.

An article in the Daily Telegraph in 2008 states the Doctor had been the prime suspect in Victoria’s murder for some time, but this was no longer the case, although he seemed to remain a person of interest. In an article from the Examiner in 2009 it states that police were hoping to speak with him again about Victoria’s murder as they believed he could assist them. Having said that, Coroner Don Jones is content that the Doctor is not the culprit. He stated that while the Doctor had gotten himself in trouble it did not mean he was a killer.

In 2015 DI John King of the Northern CIB said the Doctor remained one of the persons of interest in the case. It's important to say no charges have ever been made against him in connection with Victoria's murder.

So who did kill Victoria Cafasso?

DI Graham Hickey, who led the investigation for so many years, is now retired. In 2015 he told the Sydney Morning Herald that he doubts that Victoria was killed by a serial killer. Hickey does not believe the murder is connected to the disappearance of Nancy Grunwaldt. He thinks there is much more likely to be a link with Hilda Jackson. He thinks she could well have been the target of the attack. 

Retired Detective Bob Coad who worked Nancy Grunwaldt's case agrees that it is not connected to Victoria's murder. He suspects Nancy may have been killed in an accident. There have been rumours floating around that a truck driver may have hit and killed Nancy.

Bob Coad has evidence that an answerphone message was left at a Hobart solicitor’s office around the time Nancy disappeared in March 1993. The upset caller said he had been involved in a terrible accident on the east coast which had left someone killed and they needed legal help. The solicitor checked the news and saw no reports of an accident and thought no more about it. The caller did not reach out again. If you remember there was a delay in Nancy being reported missing and a possible connection with the phone call was only realised months later. 

Four years later, after Nancy's case was aired on a tv show, an anonymous caller from Brisbane phoned in to tell a similar story and said Nancy's dead body was pushed off a steep pass. Bob Coad believes this incident happened on a treacherous stretch of road known as Elephant pass. In 2011 police received a tip that Nancy's red mountain bike could be found in a tip near to this location in the town off Bicheno. However, nothing was found. 

Others such as author Melanie Calvert maintain there is a link between Nancy and Victoria. Personally, I’m not convinced there is.

Speaking in 2020 Coroner Don Jones suggested that even if Victoria's killer could be found, due to the evidence that was lost amongst the sand, there would be no realistic chance of a conviction. In his mind the initial investigation spent far too much attention on the three persons of interest, the Biker, Fisherman and Doctor. The case needed to be looked at afresh. He added cryptically that he believed he knew who killed Victoria but did not give any more details other  than to say the person was no longer in Tasmania. It was his suspicion that the killer had not started out with the plan to murder Victoria, but the situation had escalated beyond his control.

The pathology report suggests that useful forensic evidence is scant but over the years police have commented from time to time to say solving the case could lie with DNA. In 2020 Launceston Criminal Investigation Bureau were working with the university of Tasmania to see if they could extract DNA evidence from one exhibit found at the crime scene. They did not reveal what this exhibit was and no more news has come from this.

Coroner Don Jones' request for a fresh look seems to have been heeded. Just this year there has been a new development in Victoria's  case. On August 10th 2023 police released a new description of a car and person of interest they were looking to locate and identify.

Detective acting Inspector Andrew Hanson said the lead came about during the recent digitisation of the case notes. As a matter of course during the process, witnesses were spoken to again and a stronger link was realised between a man seen running across the beach at 11am and the driver of a mysterious car spotted in the area. I previously detailed a couple of witness accounts of a man seen running on or near the beach. 

The vehicle was a light coloured 1970s Subaru station wagon. It was seen parked near the beach and at several locations around Beaumaris including Freshwater creek. This model of car was popular at the time and police hoped it may still be sitting around somewhere, perhaps laying unused on a farm. 

The man police were looking for was described as a surfer type in his 20s. He was 6ft or 182 cm with a slim build and said to have looked very fit. His legs and arms were well sun tanned.  Both the man and the car were said to have been looked into at the time but the two had not been connected together. Police also confirmed at the same time that properties were searched on the east coast of Tasmania and elsewhere in connection with the case. Areas of bushland and inland water near the town of St Helens were also said to have been searched. This was not a place that was focused on in 1995. This area was now of interest because the review of the case notes brought to the fore a witness statement who put the Subaru station wagon at this location around this time of the murder. The witness, who had since passed away, reported being tailgated by a Subaru being driven erratically. The Subaru suddenly veered off down a small track towards the coast. In 1995 the witness had drawn a map for police to show where this had happened and this is where the new search was focused. Nothing of note was found but the search for the surfer type man and the Subaru car goes on.

This has been one of those cases where there is so much information and so many persons of interest that it is easy for the victim to be sidelined. It’s proper to pause and remember Victoria and her family, particularly her mother Xenia who tragically lost her husband so soon after her eldest daughter. 

The case is being reviewed continually and new information is being checked. Police have some contact with Victoria’s family, though not on a regular basis. There exists a $500,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in this case. Contact the police on 131 444 or crime stoppers.1800 333 000. 

Sources

https://tinyurl.com/39kuvw9s