Murder of Karmein Chan

Karmein was a Chinese-Australian citizen. She was born on 5 November 1977 in Australia, to parents who had separately migrated from Hong Kong to Melbourne the year prior to her birth.[5] Her parents, John and Phyllis Chan, had become engaged shortly after their arrival in Australia when both were in their early twenties. Both parents held strong work ethics, and by the time Karmein entered her teenage years, the Chan family owned and operated a lucrative Chinese restaurant and a Chinese takeaway, with both parents regularly working up to eighteen hours per day.[6]

Karmein was the eldest of three daughters born to the couple, with sisters Karly (b. 1981) and Karen (b. 1983) completing the family. She spent her early years living in the suburb of Bulleen before the family relocated to Serpells Road in the suburb of Templestowe.[7] All three sisters received a private education at the prestigious Presbyterian Ladies' College and her parents ensured all three of their daughters were fluent in both Chinese and English, with Chinese being the language predominantly — though not exclusively — used within the household.[8]

By 1991, Karmein was a year-eight student at Presbyterian Ladies' College, where she was known as a bright and diligent student with ambitions to become a barrister.[8] At the time of her abduction she was recuperating from a bout of glandular fever, from which she had largely recovered by mid-April.[9]

On the morning of 13 April 1991,[10] Chan attended her regular Saturday tennis lessons at the Camberwell Tennis Centre in Balwyn North, where she had begun lessons the previous year. Her mother later drove her daughter to the Bulleen Plaza shopping centre, where the two ate breakfast. That afternoon, friends of the family drove Karmein and her sisters to the Lower Plenty Chinese takeaway their parents operated, where the sisters ate an afternoon meal with their mother before an employee drove the sisters home at approximately 6:30 p.m. The sisters spent approximately one hour at home with their father before he left to attend to business needs at the Lower Plenty takeaway, just ten minutes' drive from their home.[11]

According to Karly and Karen, their sister then read stories to them before all three sisters watched a "television special" about Marilyn Monroe in Karmein's bedroom.[8][12]

The Victoria Police launched an intense search to locate Karmein. All available resources were devoted to the manhunt, with numerous officers assigned full-time to locate the child. The search involved 160 police officers conducting house-to-house inquiries across eastern Melbourne in the hope of obtaining eyewitnesses,[16] the search of nearby properties and locations of interest, and the questioning of all known sex offenders within Victoria and New South Wales by detectives trained to investigate sexual crimes against minors.[17][n 1] Search and rescue dogs were also used in ground level searches and although the sniffer dogs did detect the scent of Karmein's abductor at her home, the trail he had taken with the child ended at a vacant block just 300 metres from the family home on nearby Church Road, suggesting he had bundled Karmein into a vehicle very close to her home.[8]

The graffito left upon one of the Chan family's two vehicles, likely as a subterfuge to deflect her abductor's true intentions for abducting Karmein

An examination of the crime scene revealed that prior to entering the Chan household, the abductor had tampered with the electronically operated security gate to gain access to the property and either immediately before entering the Chan household to kidnap Karmein, or upon fleeing with the child, her abductor spray-painted "Asian drug dealer!", "Payback" and either "More and more to come" or "More anon. More to come" on the family's Toyota Camry in the front yard.[n 2] No ransom demand was left at the household and although the family lived in a lavish A$1,000,000 home, no money or valuables had been stolen.[18] Karmein's parents made several emotional televised pleas for their daughter's safe return—ultimately to no avail.[15]

Within days of Karmein's abduction, Victoria Police contacted the FBI to request a psychological profile of her abductor. This profile was received on 24 April, and determined the individual most likely lived or worked close to the location of Karmein's abduction, worked either within a school or in a profession requiring frequent contact with educational academies, and that he would be diligent within his employment—having likely received awards of recognition for his achievements and/or performance. The individual would have created and retained pornographic material pertaining to his attacks which he would regard as of "great personal significance" to himself and,[19] although regarded by neighbours and acquaintances as a polite and respectable — if somewhat introverted — individual, would have exhibited marked changes in his behaviour immediately following his abductions including "uncharacteristic" alcohol abuse and poor work attendance/performance in addition to a possible piqued religious interest.[20]

Had this individual been in a relationship, the profile indicated his partner would have been aware of elements of his sexual dysfunction including avid pornography usage and a requirement for his partner to dress as or imitate a schoolgirl in periods of intimacy.[20]

The location of Karmein's abduction, the victim profile, the description of the abductor's clothing, and the modus operandi surrounding her abduction led police to rapidly link the abduction to a serial sex offender linked to several kidnappings and sexual assaults of girls in the suburbs of Melbourne known in the media as Mr Cruel,[18] who is known to have taken extreme measures to both conceal his identity in the commission of his crimes and to avoid leaving forensic evidence at his crime scenes.[17][n 3] This link was released to the media twenty-four hours after the commission of the abduction,[22] with investigators also rapidly determining the graffiti left by the abductor upon one of the family vehicles had likely been an attempt to distract police attention from this true motive for kidnapping Karmein.[14]

On 6 May 1991, 23 days after Karmein's abduction, Victoria Police formed the Spectrum Task Force to investigate her abduction; this task force subsumed the previous crimes investigated by Operation Challenge.[29] Forty investigators were assigned full-time to the task force, and a reward of A$100,000 was also offered for information leading to her safe recovery and the apprehension of the offender. More than 10,000 public tips were received, 30,000 homes searched and 27,000 people — including doctors, teachers, journalists and policemen — interviewed. All leads of inquiry failed to bear fruition[30] and by June 1991 — the reward sum by this stage having increased to A$300,000 for the apprehension of Mr Cruel — Karmein's mother had begun practicing a Chinese custom of standing at her front gate every midnight and ringing bells as she called her daughter's name in the hope her eldest child would return home.[31]

The Spectrum Task Force continued to investigate Karmein's abduction and murder for over two years following the discovery of her body. Public appeals for information yielded ample information,[36] and the task force ultimately investigated over 10,000 public tips and searched over 30,000 properties. Seventy-three individuals were also arrested on suspicion of Karmein's murder, although all were ultimately cleared of involvement.[11]

On 31 January 1994, the Spectrum Task Force was disbanded, although the investigation into Karmein's murder remained open.[37]