Wanda Beach Murders
The victims, both aged 15, were best friends and neighbours from the suburb of West Ryde, and their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day.
The brutal nature of the slayings and the fact that they occurred on a deserted, windswept beach brought massive publicity to the case.
In 1963, Helmut Schmidt moved the family to the Sydney area after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, residing in a home in West Ryde.
[7] On Monday 11 January, accompanied by Schmidt's four youngest siblings, the girls again set off by train for Cronulla railway station after transferring at Redfern.
[6] The next morning, on Tuesday 12 January, Peter Smith was taking three young nephews for a walk through the Wanda Beach sandhills.
[11] Some distance north of the Wanda Surf Club, he discovered what appeared to be a store mannequin buried face-down in the sand.
An intensive search was undertaken to find the murder weapons, a long knife and some sort of blunt instrument, but they were never found.
[1] It was also discovered that Sharrock had consumed food (cabbage and celery – i.e., possibly a Chiko Roll) that was different from the rest of the party; it is suspected this occurred while she was alone.
[1] There has been doubt about his description of this person, as Wolfgang's testimony over time variously suggested he had a homemade speargun, a fishing knife or both.
The funerals for Schmidt and Sharrock were held on 20 January, and an A£10,000 reward was posted in February[12] (later converted to A$20,000 in 1966), which stood unchanged as of August 2002[update].
[13] In April 1966 the coroner handed down his report, by which time police had interviewed some 7,000 people, making it the largest investigation in Australian history.
[15] While admitting that current technology was unable to provide more information, police were confident that future advances would give more assistance.
Johnson believed the painting showed blood trails, a broken knife blade and the body of a victim, and became convinced that Bassett was the Wanda Beach killer.
In a chapter devoted to the Wanda Beach murders, most of which is essentially a repeat of what he had written in his earlier book Crime Reporter, Jenkings mentions Bassett and his painting.
Since his release, Bassett has voluntarily given a DNA sample to clear his name, but whether or not he has been eliminated as a suspect in the Wanda Beach murders has yet to be publicised.
[1][18] Two years prior to the murders, Wilder had been convicted of a gang-rape on a Sydney beach which led police to include him as a suspect.
Wilder had emigrated to the United States in 1969; while visiting his parents in Australia in 1982, he was charged with sexual offences against two 15-year-old girls whom he had forced to pose nude.
[1] Percy, considered too dangerous to be released and the prime suspect for a number of other murders of children in Melbourne and Sydney, died in 2013 from cancer.
[17] "Gary" also stated that the vehicle circled Railway Square three times before turning back onto Gladstone Avenue and parking opposite the Piccadilly Centre.
