Труро қасірлері: Аустралиядағы құрбан болған әйелдер ізі

Series of murders in Truro, Australia

The Truro murders is the name given to a series of murders uncovered with the discovery in 1978 and 1979 of the remains of a young woman and teenage girl in bushland east of the town of Truro in South Australia. After police searches, the remains of seven women and girls were discovered in total: five at Truro, one at Wingfield, and one at Port Gawler. The victims had been murdered over a two month period in 1976–1977.

On 20 April 1978, William "Bill" Thomas and his brother found what they thought was the bone from the leg of a cow whilst mushrooming in bushland beside Swamp Road near the South Australian town of Truro located about 70 km northeast of Adelaide. Bill's wife Valda had concerns about the find and two days later convinced her husband to have another look. Upon closer inspection, they noted that the bone had a shoe attached; inside the shoe was human skin and painted toenails. Clothes, blood stains, and more bones were found nearby. The remains were later identified as those of Veronica Knight, an 18 year old woman who had vanished from an Adelaide street two days before Christmas of 1976. The lack of an obvious cause of death along with the location led to a belief that Knight may have gotten lost and died of thirst so the death was not considered suspicious. Almost one year later, on 15 April 1979, police discovered the skeletal remains of 16 year old Sylvia Pittmann, about 2 km from where Knight's remains had been located. Pittmann had disappeared around the same time as Knight.

Christopher Worrell aged 23, described as young, charismatic and sociopathic, and James Miller, a 38 year old labourer, described as a drifter and homosexual partner of Worrell, are believed to have committed the murders. Miller and Worrell met when they were in prison together, Miller for breaking and entering, Worrell for rape and breaching a two year suspended sentence for armed robbery. After release they formed a dominant/submissive relationship and both lived and worked together. Miller was infatuated with Worrell, who would allow Miller to perform sexual acts on him while he read pornographic, and predominantly BDSM, magazines. As Worrell preferred women this later ceased and they became more like brothers. Worrell and a lady he abducted, Deborah Skuse, were killed in a car crash on 19 February 1977, thus ending the murders. Miller survived the car accident. Miller suffered depression and became homeless after Worrell's death. Miller's state of mind and a chance comment were to eventually give police a breakthrough when at Worrell's funeral, his former girlfriend, Amelia, told Miller that Worrell had had a suspected blood clot on the brain. This announcement prompted Miller to tell her about Worrell's fascination with thrill killing, suggesting that the clot might possibly have been responsible for the moods that led Worrell to kill. In May 1979, she collected a $30,000 reward after providing the information to police leading to Miller's arrest and capture. Amelia said that she had not come forward earlier because she had no proof the admission was true and that there was not much point in going to the police as Worrell was dead. It was only after reading of the murders in the newspaper that she came forward. It is highly likely that the murders would have gone unsolved if Amelia had not come forward. Miller was brought in for questioning on 23 May 1979. Initially he denied knowing anything, but eventually stated that Amelia had "done what I should have" and told detectives that there were three more bodies. Miller was driven under guard to Truro, Port Gawler and the Wingfield dump where he pointed out their locations.

Miller stood trial for the murders, and was found guilty of six of the seven murders (with the exception of the first murder, Veronica Knight) on 12 March 1980. Unusually, he was convicted of murder despite allegedly having never touched a victim; he was sentenced to the maximum six consecutive terms of life imprisonment. The testimony at his trial revealed a terrifying story. Miller and Worrell would cruise the city streets every night in Worrell's 1969 blue and white Chrysler Valiant (VF) wagon, looking for women that Worrell could have sex with. Worrell was 23, charismatic and good looking, so Worrell had no trouble in regularly "picking up" local girls for casual sex. Miller would drive Worrell and the woman to a secluded place, where Worrell would have sex with the women, often after tying them up, while Miller waited outside the car. Miller would then drive them back into town and drop them off. Miller described how the "pick ups" became more and more terrifying. First, Worrell started occasionally raping the women who refused his advances. Then he started murdering them. Miller was unaware that murder would occur prior to it happening; he stated that it only happened some times and not others. It appeared that as the violence increased, Miller became increasingly fearful of Worrell. Miller maintained, "They can give me life for knowing about the murders and not reporting them. But they charged me with murder It's a load of bullshit". Following the trial one of the jurors hired a lawyer to petition the attorney general for a retrial. South Australian Chief Justice Len King agreed that Miller should be granted another hearing on the grounds that the judge at his trial, Mr Justice Matheson, had instructed the jury to find Miller guilty of murder. Attorney General of South Australia,
Chris Smner, refused to grant a retrial. Legally, Miller argued that he never engaged in any murders directly, nor did he explicitly agree prior to going out cruising for women that he would support Worrell in the murders. Nevertheless, he was found guilty of murder because he was found to be a part of a joint criminal enterprise. He was present at the crime scenes and assisted in disposing of the bodies. This created subsequent legal difficulties over the definition of a joint criminal enterprise, but these have largely been resolved on the basis that this was a special—and particularly horrifying—case. In 1999, Miller applied to have a non parole period set under new laws, and on 8 February 2000, Chief Justice John Doyle granted a non parole period of 35 years, making Miller eligible for parole in 2014.

On 21 October 2008, at the age of 68, Miller died of liver failure, as a complication of having hepatitis C. He also suffered from prostate cancer and lung cancer. At that point he was one of the longest serving prisoners in the state.

An episode of the documentary series Crime Investigation Australia depicted Worrell's and Miller's crime spree. Australian True Crime released a podcast in 2022 titled Serial Killers at Truro.