Lloyd Crosbie

Last updated

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie
Born (1982-04-16) 16 April 1982 (age 39)
Conviction(s) Murder
Criminal penalty2 x Life imprisonment; non-parole period 30 years

Lloyd Maurice Crosbie (born 16 April 1982 in Wangaratta, Victoria [1] ) is a convicted Australian double murderer, currently serving two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment for the murders of his girlfriend, Melissa Joy Maahs, 18, and her mother, Kaye Lucy Maahs, 54 in the Victorian town of Morwell on 18 August 2001.

Contents

Crosbie, who often spoke of "killing somebody" to be reunited with his older brothers in prison, was nineteen at the time of the murders. He was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment in the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2003 and will be eligible for parole in 2031, aged 49.

Early life

Crosbie was born the youngest of five children in a family home that was often the scene of domestic violence. His parents separated when he was five years old and Crosbie was at times placed into foster care. He would often spend times with his older brothers killing dogs, cats and other animals and watching violent films.

Crosbie's older brother resides as an inpatient at a psychiatric hospital after being found not guilty of murder due to mental impairment. Another brother is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for attempted murder. Crosbie spoke regularly of killing somebody to be "reunited" with his brothers. [1]

During August 2000, police attended at Crosbie's home when neighbours alerted them of Crosbie smashing his belongings. Police arrested Crosbie and escorted him to the Latrobe Regional Hospital where he was treated by a psychiatrist after making alarming statements. A police officer who escorted Crosbie to the hospital made the following notes,

"Listening to Crosbie he was a very angry and disturbed person. He feels like the world is against him. He has a deep hatred for all those that have caused him grief in the past. I believe that he could cause serious injury to someone in the future. He appeared fixated with the idea of killing someone in an effort to be reunited with his two brothers. All members (of the police force) should be made aware of his thoughts and treat Crosbie with extreme caution. [1] "

During 2000, Crosbie met Melissa Maahs and commenced a relationship. After a short time they moved in together at Crosbie's father's premises in Morwell. From 5 November 2000 they shared a Ministry of Housing home in Buna Street, Morwell, until 8 April 2001 when the couple moved in to share with Melissa's mother Kaye in Dayble Street.

Double murder

On 18 August 2001, at approximately 3am, Crosbie sat awake watching a movie. His girlfriend Melissa lay sleeping beside him in the couple's bed. Without warning, Crosbie removed a skinning knife from a scabbard and proceeded to stab his girlfriend three times to the head while she lay sleeping. Melissa woke and began to scream and fight off her attacker. [1]

Crosbie then attacked Melissa's mother Kaye in the hallway of their home as she came to her daughter's assistance. Realizing Kaye was not dead, he attacked her further using two porcelain ornaments, smashing them both; a frying pan, buckling it; and an iron. [1]

Crosbie alternated between attacking Melissa and Kaye many times over, and would have sexual intercourse with Melissa's dead body, using pornographic magazines on her back while defiling her. After murdering the two women, Crosbie then disturbed the contents of the house to make it appear as if a burglary had occurred. [1]

Crosbie escaped the murder scene in a taxi, travelling to Morwell railway station and purchasing a ticket to Wangaratta. A male relative later found the bodies of the two women when he visited their home after not hearing from them for two days. Crosbie disposed of the murder weapon in a creek in Wangaratta. [1]

Guilty plea

On 20 August 2001, police attended to Crosbie's father's home in relation to the murders. Crosbie made full admissions to his crimes. He could not offer police any reasonable explanation for the murders, saying of his girlfriend Melissa's murder,

"I don't know. I don't. I just did and I've been thinking about it ever since fucking Saturday morning. Wouldn't have a clue ... It's got me thinking all this time, about what normal reason she's the only girl that's ever loved me. Why the fuck would I wanna hurt her? [1] "

Professor Paul Mullen, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Monash University spoke of Crosbie's sexual sadism in a pre-sentencing report,

"Crosbie states that his relationship with Melissa Maahs was the closest and most personally rewarding relationship of his life. Similarly he describes his prior relationship with the mother, Mrs Kaye Maahs as one of affection and closeness. The dreadful killings appear to have emerged not out of anger, resentment or jealousy, but in the context of a fear of increasing closeness and a fear that he would inevitably lose these relationships which he valued. The killings themselves would appear to have elements not just of extreme brutality but of active sadism involving sexual excitement linked to the murderous acts. [1] "

Crosbie pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced on 11 March 2003 in the Supreme Court of Victoria to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years. [1] Crosbie later appeared in court seeking to suppress the fact that he had sex with the body of Melissa Maahs after he murdered her. His request was denied; he resides in protective custody while imprisoned due to threats on his life from fellow prisoners. [2]

He will be eligible for parole on 20 August 2031, aged 49.

Related Research Articles

Kenneth Bianchi American serial killer, kidnapper and rapist

Kenneth Alessio Bianchi is an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. He is known for the 1977-79 Hillside Strangler murders committed with his cousin Angelo Buono Jr., as well as for murdering two more women in Washington by himself. Bianchi is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment in Washington State Penitentiary for these crimes.

A thrill kill is premeditated or random murder that is motivated by the sheer excitement of the act. While there have been attempts to categorize multiple murders, such as identifying "thrill killing" as a type of "hedonistic mass killing", actual details of events frequently overlap category definitions making attempts at such distinctions problematic.

Keith Faure Australian career criminal

Keith George Faure, from Norlane, Victoria, is an Australian career criminal, convicted of multiple murders and manslaughters. He is currently serving life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 19 years for his role in two murders related to the Melbourne gangland killings. Faure's criminal history includes further convictions for armed robbery and breaking and entering.

Peter Norris Dupas is an Australian convicted serial killer, currently serving three life sentences without parole for murder and primarily for being a serious habitual offender. He has a very significant criminal history involving serious sexual and violent offences, with his violent criminal history spanning more than three decades, and with every release from prison has been known to commit further crimes against women with increasing levels of violence. His criminal signature is to remove the breasts of his female victims.

Siddharth Vashisht, better known as Manu Sharma, is an Indian murderer, convicted in 2006 to serve life imprisonment for the 1999 murder of Jessica Lal. He was released in June 2020, 14 years into the sentence, for good conduct during imprisonment. Sharma is the son of the former Indian National Congress leader, Venod Sharma, and the brother of media baron, Kartikeya Sharma.

On January 27, 2001, Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop, aged 62 and 55 respectively, were stabbed to death at their home in Etna, New Hampshire. Originally from Germany, the couple had been teaching at Dartmouth since the 1970s. High school classmates James J. Parker, age 16, and Robert W. Tulloch, age 17, were charged with first-degree murder.

Mark Valera is an Australian murderer who was convicted in 2000 of the murders of David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell in Wollongong, New South Wales.

Walter E. Ellis American serial killer and rapist

Walter Earl Ellis, known as The Milwaukee North Side Strangler, was an American serial killer who raped and strangled at least seven women in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1986 and 2007. Until May 2009, the killings were considered to independent of one another, but were then linked together via DNA profiling. Ellis would be arrested as a suspect on September 7, 2009 and convicted for the seven murders in February 2011, receiving seven consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole.

Brett Peter Cowan is an Australian murderer and child rapist. He was convicted of the murder of Daniel Morcombe, a 13-year old boy who disappeared from the Sunshine Coast on 7 December 2003. His abduction led to an eight-year investigation involving various suspects, until an undercover police sting in August 2011 revealed Cowan as the perpetrator. He was charged with the murder that same month and Morcombe's remains were discovered days later on 17 August. Cowan was sentenced to life imprisonment, on 13 March 2014 in a trial that attracted worldwide attention. Cowan had two previous convictions for sexually abusing children, the earliest dating back to 1987.

Bandali Michael Debs is an Australian convicted serial killer currently serving four consecutive terms of life imprisonment plus 27 years for the murder of two Victoria Police officers in August 1998 and for the 1997 murder of teenager Kristy Harty. Debs was detained at HM Prison Barwon in Victoria. On 12 December 2011 he was convicted of the April 1995 shooting murder of New South Wales sex worker Donna Ann Hicks. He is portrayed by Australian actor Greg Stone in the telemovie Underbelly Files: Tell Them Lucifer was Here.

Murder of Becky Watts 2015 murder of British student

Rebecca Marie "Becky" Watts was a British student from Bristol who was murdered in 2015 at the age of 16. In November 2015, her step-brother, Nathan Matthews, was found guilty of her murder and was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 33 years. His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 17 years in prison, although Matthews had insisted to police that Hoare had nothing to do with the killing or dismembering and hiding of Watts' body. Both Matthews and Hoare were also convicted of conspiracy to kidnap, preventing the lawful burial of a body, perverting the course of justice and possession of two stun guns.

Anthony and Nathaniel Cook American criminal brothers

Anthony and Nathaniel Cook are American serial killer brothers who committed a series of at least 9 rapes and murders in Toledo, Ohio area between 1973 and 1981. Their guilt was established in the late 1990s thanks to DNA profiling, after which both brothers were convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

Crimes That Shook Britain is a television series first aired in 2008 on Crime & Investigation UK, focusing on uncovering the truth behind crimes that shocked the nation. Some episodes were also rebroadcast in random episode order from 2014 to 2019, on Channel 5 originally under the title Britain's Worst Crimes.

The Freeman family murders occurred in Salisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, on February 26, 1995. Brothers, 17-year-old Bryan Freeman and 16-year-old David Freeman, along with their cousin, 18-year-old Nelson "Ben" Birdwell III, murdered their parents, Brenda and Dennis, and their 11-year-old brother, Erik, at their family home. For several years the brothers had been embracing neo-Nazi culture, though this had escalated in the months leading up to the killings, with them going so far as to tattoo Nazi slogans on their foreheads. Both brothers and their cousin were given life sentences without the possibility of parole, though none of the three were convicted in the murder of Erik Freeman. It was reported in 2014 that those sentences would be upheld, despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that mandatory life-without-parole sentences were unconstitutional for juveniles convicted of murder.

Murder of Ryan Poston Murder of an American attorney

On October 12, 2012, Ryan Carter Poston, an American attorney from Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, was shot to death by his on-again off-again girlfriend Shayna Michelle Hubers. After a trial in the Campbell County circuit court, Hubers was convicted of murder on April 23, 2015. She was sentenced to 40 years in the Kentucky Department of Corrections on August 14, 2015, with parole eligibility after 34 years. On August 25, 2016, Hubers' conviction was overturned on appeal when one of the jurors in her murder trial was revealed to be a convicted felon. Hubers was convicted of murder during her second trial on August 28, 2018. On October 18, 2018 she was sentenced to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 20 years.

Theodore Johnson is a Jamaican-born English serial killer who murdered his three wives/girlfriends over a span of four decades. After the murder of his last victim, Angela Best, he was sentenced to 26 years imprisonment.

Gary James Lewingdon and Thaddeus Charles Lewingdon were American siblings and serial killers, who committed a series of ten murders in different Ohio counties from December 1977 and December 1978 for the motive of robbery. As a murder weapon, the criminals used .22 caliber pistols, due to which they received the nickname The .22 Caliber Killers. In 1979, both brothers were sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment.

Tony Ables American serial killer

Tony Alvin Ables is an American serial killer who murdered one man and later three women and girls of various ages in the Tampa Bay area. Officially convicted of two murders, Ables was later connected via DNA evidence to two other murders in 2006: of 84-year-old retiree Adeline McLaughlin in 1983, and his 31-year-old girlfriend Deborah Kisor in 1987. Despite their romantic involvement, Ables was not charged with Kisor's killing, and is yet to be tried for McLaughlin's. He is currently serving a life sentence for killing another girlfriend, 48-year-old Marlene Burns, in 1990.

Esa Kalle Vihtori Åkerlund is a Finnish serial killer. Initially sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1995 murder of his ex-wife, he was paroled, only to commit a triple murder in 2010, for which he received 15 years. In addition to this, he was acquitted of another in 1993, of which he still remains the prime suspect.

Larry Lee Ranes and Danny Arthur Ranes are American serial killer brothers who committed their crime sprees predominantly in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Larry, a suspect in the murders of 5 people in the 1960s, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for one murder in 1964; Danny was convicted of four sexually-motivated murders between March and August 1972 with accomplice Brent Koster, for which both were sentenced to life imprisonment. Their case is notable for the fact that, unlike other siblings who engage in crime, they operated completely independently of one another.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R v Crosbie [2003] VSC 69 (19 March 2003), Supreme Court (Vic,Australia).
  2. Sex Sadist Pleads Guilty to Murder Of Two Women Archived 4 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine , Retrieved 13 October 2007