Australian manhunt for Maghera man
Thursday, 3 July 2008
How investigators believe Elmer Kyle Crawford, now 78, looks now.
POLICE in Australia have launched a fresh appeal to track down a Maghera man who has been charged with the murder of his pregnant wife and three children almost 40 years ago.
Brought up in Tamney Martin, Maghera, Elmer Kyle Crawford emigrated to Australia in 1951 with his grandmother Elizabeth.
In July 1971 a coroner's inquest found that he murdered his wife and three children in their suburban home. The youngest child was only six.
The details of the crime are particularly gruesome and have even been the focus of a TV documentary in Australia.
Crawford, an electrician, constructed an electrocution device, using electrical leads and alligator clips, he then attached the clips to his wife's ears and electrocuted her while she was asleep. Following this he murdered his three children while they lay in their beds using a blunt instrument, suspected to be a hammer, to fracture their skulls.
Crawford, who would now be 78, placed the bodies of his family in a car and rolled it off a cliff, more than 200km from their home, expecting it to disappear without trace. The car however became stuck on a ledge and the bodies were found the next day, authorities came looking for Crawford but he had disappeared.
A computer generated photograph of how Crawford may look now has been released by Australian authorities and a $100,000 reward has been offered in attempt to crack the case.
Police generated the image of Crawford based on information from a woman who knew him and saw him in Perth and Bunbury in 1994, 24 years after the murders.
