The Family Murders

Between 1979 and 1983, five young men and boys disappeared in Adelaide, South Australia, and were later found dead: Alan Barnes, Neil Muir, Peter Stogneff, Mark Langley and Richard Kelvin. Police came to believe the deaths were connected, and the press gave the suspected group behind them a name, “the Family.”

Richard Kelvin, 15, was the son of Adelaide television newsreader Rob Kelvin. On June 5, 1983, he walked a friend to a bus stop near his North Adelaide home and did not return. His body was found on July 24 in the hills north-east of the city, near Kersbrook. He had been held for about five weeks, given alcohol and sedatives, and sexually assaulted. A search of sedative prescription records led police to Bevan Spencer von Einem, who was interviewed in late July and arrested that November.

A jury found von Einem guilty of Richard’s murder on November 5, 1984. He was sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 24 years, which the Court of Criminal Appeal raised to 36 years in March 1985. He was later charged with the murders of Alan Barnes and Mark Langley, but prosecutors abandoned that case after the judge ruled key evidence inadmissible. No one else has been convicted over any of the deaths. Von Einem died in prison in December 2025, at 79.