Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon

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Disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon
Ratcliffegordonfrontpage.jpg
The Sunday Mail 's front page on the day after Ratcliffe and Gordon disappeared
Date25 August 1973
Time3:50pm [1]
Duration Missing for 50 years, 2 months and 30 days
Venue Adelaide Oval
Location Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
TypeAbduction
Missing
  • Joanne Ratcliffe (11)
  • Kirste Gordon (4)

Joanne Ratcliffe (born 1962) [2] and Kirste Jane Gordon (born 1968) [3] were two Australian girls who went missing while attending an Australian rules football match at the Adelaide Oval on 25 August 1973. Their disappearance, and presumed abduction and murder, [1] became one of South Australia's most infamous crimes. The case, also known as the Adelaide Oval abductions, is thought by South Australia Police and the media to be related to the disappearance of the Beaumont children in 1966. [4]

Contents

Disappearance

On 25 August 1973, Joanne Ratcliffe attended an Australian rules football game, between Norwood and North Adelaide, with her parents Les and Kathleen Ratcliffe, her older brother and a family friend named "Frank" at the Adelaide Oval. [5] Kirste Gordon was at the game in the care of her maternal grandmother while her parents, Greg and Christine Gordon, were visiting friends with their younger daughter in Renmark. [6] The two families were seated next to each other in the Sir Edwin Smith Stand.

Ratcliffe's parents and Gordon's grandmother, who were friends, allowed the two girls to go to the toilet together on two occasions that day. [7] The Ratcliffe family rule was that children were not allowed to go to the toilet during the breaks in the game, or during the last quarter. [5] After the girls left at around 3:45 pm, the Ratcliffes began searching from around 4:00. After an unsuccessful first attempt, Ratcliffe's mother was finally able to get an announcement made on the Oval's PA system shortly after the game ended around 5:00 pm. [7] The girls were reported missing to the police at 5:12 pm.

Investigation

Ratcliffe and Gordon were sighted several times in the ninety minutes after leaving their families–once when trying to attract a stray cat, once with other children, and later, apparently distressed and with an unknown man who was carrying Gordon. Witnesses, unaware of the kidnapping, assumed the suspect was simply a parent with his children. The girls disappeared after the last reported sighting on a bridge near the Adelaide Zoo. [1] Another witness, however, later reported seeing them between North Adelaide railway station and Port Road, Thebarton. [8] Despite searches, a A$5,000 reward and widespread media attention, the kidnapping quickly became a cold case.

In 1979, Ratcliffe's father told the Coroners Court of Queensland that his daughter had been to the Oval dozens of times, that she would not have left voluntarily and that she knew how to use a telephone to call an emergency number. He said she had not met Gordon before that day, and he did not know her parents.

On the fortieth anniversary of the case, Ratcliffe's sister, Suzie Wilkinson, said, "The case has never been officially closed but I would like further investigations into it. I want investigations into more recent developments. I certainly want a little bit more logic put behind why police have dismissed evidence which has been put before them and why things haven't been followed up. We seem to be left in the dark. It might be forty years to them and just another case, but to us it is forty years of us not getting to watch Jo grow up. That's forty years of not having a daughter, a sister, an aunty." [9]

In 2014, a A$1 million reward was offered by the South Australian government. [10] [11]

Suspects

Many of the suspects in the Beaumont children disappearance are also suspects in this case, including child killers Bevan Spencer von Einem and Derek Percy. Witness reports led police to believe that Ratcliffe and Gordon were abducted by a middle-aged man. [12] [13] Further, an identikit picture of the man last seen with the two girls resembles that of the man last seen with the Beaumont children. [14]

Arthur Stanley Brown (1912–2002) is considered a suspect for both cases, as he bore a striking similarity to the identikit picture from both cases. [15] A witness reported seeing a man [16] near the Oval carrying a young girl while another older girl in distress followed. The woman first saw the man for a single minute when aged 14, and then identified him twenty-five years later in December 1998 when she saw him on television. [17]

Another possible suspect is Stanley Arthur Hart (1917–1999). Properties previously owned by Hart in Prospect and Yatina) were investigated in 2009 and again in 2015. [18] Hart reportedly rarely missed a North Adelaide match, [18] and a decade after the abduction he was found to be a child abuser. On the fiftieth anniversary of the abduction in 2023, Wilkinson claimed, "In my heart of hearts, I believe it was Hart.". [19]

In 2013, Wilkinson appealed to the authorities to look into the role that family friend "Frank" may have played in the disappearance. Frank had accompanied the families to the Oval on the day of the abduction but may not have been formally questioned by police. Frank is alleged to have had intimate knowledge about the girls' routine behaviours during football match outings. Ratcliffe's mother said that Frank left his seat for approximately thirty minutes before the abduction, but later remained seated and did not participate when others formed search parties to look for them. Gordon's grandmother also took notice of Frank's behaviour during the search, saying, "the other man stayed in his seat." [9]

In 2023, convicted Queensland paedophile Errol George Radan (died 2022 [20] ) was revealed to have been officially investigated as a suspect in the abduction. Radan repeatedly offended in South Australia until he was imprisoned for the indecent assault of an underage girl in 1984. [21] An alleged victim of Radan claimed that he bore striking similarity to the identikit picture of the Oval abductor, and that he began sexually abusing her around the time of the abduction. After Radan left his Broadview home, it was alleged that both a scrapbook containing clippings of Ratcliffe and Gordon and clothes belonging to young girls were found in the underground drainage system. [22]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Inquest on Adelaide Oval girls". The Age . 10 July 1979. p. 6. Retrieved 12 August 2009.
  2. ↑ "RATCLIFFE Joanne". National Missing Persons Coordination Centre. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "GORDON Kirste". National Missing Persons Coordination Centre. 16 May 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  4. ↑ The Age, 27 August 1973
  5. 1 2 Littleley, Bryan (24 August 2013). "On the 40th anniversary of the disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon, family reveal new connections to murderer Bevan Spencer von Einem". Sunday Mail (SA). Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  6. ↑ Gage, Nicola (30 July 2017). "Missing Persons Week: Kirste Gordon's parents recall day she disappeared from Adelaide Oval". ABC News . Retrieved 24 January 2018.
  7. 1 2 Episode 1 - Little Girls Lost , retrieved 11 August 2020
  8. ↑ Polychronis, Gabriel (25 August 2019). "SA Police highlight notorious cold case". The Murray Valley Standard. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  9. 1 2 "New von Einem link in abduction case". www.adelaidenow.com.au. 24 August 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  10. ↑ Episode 2 - Little Girls Lost (Part 2) , retrieved 11 August 2020
  11. ↑ "The mysterious disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon". crimestopperssa.com.au. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  12. ↑ "Boy 'saw man forcing girls'". The Canberra Times . 31 August 1973. p. 3. Retrieved 17 July 2015– via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "Police go to oval". The Canberra Times . 3 September 1973. p. 1. Retrieved 18 July 2015– via National Library of Australia.
  14. ↑ Grace, Lynton (14 January 2014). "South Australia's most notorious unsolved crimes and mysteries: The Beaumont children - 1966". The Advertiser. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  15. ↑ "Suspected mass child killer is buried with his secrets at 90". The Age. 22 July 2002.
  16. ↑ The suspect in both crimes wore a distinctive wide-brimmed hat with a low, flat crown. Rare in Adelaide, the hat was common in the north of Australia.
  17. ↑ "SA Police offer $1 million rewards for 13 child murder cases". MAKO.org.au. MAKO. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  18. 1 2 Littlely, Bryan (11 March 2015). "Cold case: Fresh leads in 1973 Adelaide Oval abduction links key suspect to abandoned Prospect home with an underground bunker". Adelaide Advertiser. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  19. ↑ Meacham, Savannah (23 August 2023). "Sister of Adelaide Oval abduction victim knows in 'heart of hearts' the perpetrator". Nine News. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  20. ↑ Lewis, Todd (22 August 2023). "Imprisoned pedophile not be ruled out as suspect in Adelaide Oval abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirste Gordon, 4". Adelaide Now. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  21. ↑ "New suspect revealed in Adelaide Oval cold case abductions". Seven News. 23 August 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  22. ↑ "Chilling new claims revealed about 1973 Adelaide Oval double abduction". Seven News. 24 August 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.

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