Violent Crimes That Shocked a Nation - Anthony Barnao

Over the past 15 years alone, Australia has witnessed more than 500 unsolved murders and sinister disappearances. They are invariably cases which defy solution, despite massive expenditure of manpower and resources by State and Federal Governments to bring those responsible to justice.

This year Australia will likely experience as many as 200 murders and abductions, of which up to 30 or more will end up as open homicide files. The advent of political assassinations, the murderous attacks on the nation's judiciary and the emergence of the thrill-killers and new sex deviants all have taken their place alongside Australia's infamous criminal legends. In several of these cases, police believe they know the identity of the killer. But, through lack of hard evidence or because of other factors, those murderers remain free. In this book will take you through some of the more macabre and controversial of this country's unsolved homicides and disappearances from 1970 to the present. It is a journey of intrigue, desperation and terror.

ANTHONY BARNAO has been a crime writer for the Sydney Daily Mirror newspaper for the past three years and has been directly involved in several of the murder investigations detailed in this book. He has written two major series on unsolved crimes for the Mirror following months of researching police files on recent murder cases and disappearances. New Zealand educated, Barnao graduated as a photo-journalist from the Wellington Technical School of Journalism in 1979 after studying BA English and History at New Zealand's Victoria University in the mid-1970s. He was named New Zealand Young Journalist of the Year by the country's Community Newspaper Association in 1980. After completing a period of service in the New Zealand Territorial Army he came to Australia in late 1981 to further his career in journalism. Barnao, 27 lives on Sydney's North Shore and is currently the Mirror's night news editor.