Australia Australia - Margaret, 35, & Seana Tapp, 9, Ferntree Gully, Vic, 8 Aug 1984

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marlywings

marlywings

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Murder mystery: Could a pair of Dunlop Volleys lead to killer of cold case victims Margaret and Seana Tapp?

August 10, 2014


THIRTY years after Margaret Tapp and her daughter Seana were found dead in their suburban Melbourne home, the identity of the killer is still a mystery. But could a pair of Dunlop volleys be the key to cracking this case? And could a suspect appear out of the blue?

THE deviant who murdered Margaret Tapp then raped and killed her little girl 30 years ago this week is probably reading this, hoping no one notices his fascination. What he won’t know is that he has claimed another victim: Margaret’s only son, Justin.


http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...t-and-seana-tapp/story-fnihslxi-1227019420544
 
984785-ab7ed942-1df2-11e4-8adb-938012f29f27.jpg


Alan Nelson holds a family portrait of his granddaughter, Seana Tapp, daughter Margaret Tapp and grandson Justin Tapp. Picture: News Corp

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...t-and-seana-tapp/story-fnihslxi-1227019420544
 
A lengthy report about the case....

August 09, 2014

After 30 years, the killer might expect to take his secret to the grave. But how has he got away with it this long? Is it luck — or did the investigation veer off course in the first days, the “golden hours” when most murders are solved? That’s the question that torments the dwindling group of family and friends who wonder how a vile crime fell between the cracks.

POLICE aren’t the only ones who sometimes get it wrong. Reporters do, too. When the Tapps were killed in their house in Kelvin Drive, Ferntree Gully, on the night of August 7, 1984, this reporter was one of those working the crime beat at the old Russell Street police headquarters.

We wondered why the double killing didn’t become one of Victoria’s biggest murder mysteries but, after a few brief stories, we let it fade away — unlike the Easey Street murders and the disappearance of Eloise Worledge or the Mr Cruel abductions. And unlike the murder of Nanette Ellis in nearby Boronia the same year which preoccupied the same homicide crew — and the media — far more.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/la...018985280?nk=1bf22ab87f1d02e6aa101540d7baf478
 
A mother, her daughter and a murder case that got away from all

June 19, 2010

REPORTERS and police sometimes get it wrong.

When a woman and her little girl were strangled in their beds on a winter night in 1984, your correspondents both worked the police beat at Russell Street headquarters. It should have become one of Victoria's biggest unsolved murder stories, but never did. Somehow, a vile crime fell through the cracks.

Margaret and Seana Tapp and their shrinking circle of loved ones deserve more than an unsolved file and pitifully few faded newspaper clippings.

The famous cases stick in our memories. We know them by shorthand labels: the Beaumont children. Easey Street. Walsh Street. Mr Cruel. Thurgood-Dove. We know them because they attracted media attention - either because the police of the day needed public assistance or had no reason to block publicity.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/a...ase-that-got-away-from-all-20100618-ymx2.html
 
From ABC Stateline....

Transcript

DNA-based court cases thrown into doubt by mistaken murder charge

Broadcast: 08/08/2008

KATHY BOWLEN, PRESENTER: Today's (08/08/'08) the 24th anniversary of the tragic murders of Melbourne mother and daughter Margaret and Seana Tapp. It's a case Victoria police thought they'd finally solved after over more than two decades. But the crucial DNA evidence that led to charges being laid and then withdrawn has revealed serious issues in the use of DNA as an investigative tool.

Cheryl Hall reports.

JACK JACOBS, FORMER DETECTIVE: Walking into the house, it appeared normal from the front door, but then walking into the bedrooms and seeing the two deceased in their separate rooms as if they were asleep in bed, but realising that they weren't asleep. It was devastating.

CHERYL HALL, REPORTER: The murders of Margaret Tapp and her daughter Seana shocked Victoria in 1984. Even the most hardened homicide detectives we effected.

http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/vic/content/2006/s2329349.htm
 
Grisly find in England echoes horrific Ferntree Gully murders
AN INQUEST in England into the death of a man whose mother and sister were murdered 30 years ago in Ferntree Gully has *delivered an open verdict.

Justin Tapp, who was 14 when his mother Margaret Tapp and nine-year-old *sister Seana Tapp were killed on August 7, 1984, died earlier this year.

Mr Tapp was not at his family’s Kelvin Drive home on the night of the still-unsolved murders and moved to England in 2001 where he lived until his death.

He was found dead in his Wycombe bedsit on June 3 by ex-girlfriend Wendy O’Donovan, with whom he had remained friends in the years since their separation.

Ms O’Donovan told the Buckinghamshire Coroners’ Court on September 23 that Mr Tapp had problems with alcohol and had tried several times to commit *suicide.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/...ee-gully-murders/story-fngnvlxu-1227082301276
 
WHAT sort of man murders a nine-year-old girl and her mother?

It would have to be a man strong enough to subdue and strangle Margaret Tapp, a fit 35-year-old nurse fighting to save her daughter’s life.

It must be a man who was a sexual deviate.

Margaret’s daughter Seana was sexually assaulted, meaning this was a sex crime committed by a man driven to murder to cover up his powerful sexual obsession for young girls.

Category: | Herald Sun
 
One of the suspects being a bent cop is interesting. As Andrew Rule, the Herald Sun journo said, this guy was allowed into 13 Kelvin Drive by the homicide squad under what Rule refers to as "The Old Mates Act" and who knows what evidence this guy removed/destroyed?
 
the murder house was surprisingly not demolished. However, although there is still a 13 Kelvin Drive, it has been heavily renovated inside and out to discourage both "ghoul tourism" and so its modern-day owners can cope with living at an address where people were murdered.
 
The temporal perspective really hits you. For those of us who grew up in Melbourne's outer east, it still feels like yesterday... but then you remember that when Margaret and Seana were killed, there was still a "Sun" paper in the morning and a "Herald" in the afternoon. There wouldn't be a "Herald Sun" for over six years.

I think Seana was the intended victim. The attack on her was so much more brutal and sexual.

But my gut feeling tells me that the perpetrator first became familiar with the Tapps through Margaret since she had such an active social life and would have crossed paths with so many people. But that’s just my impression, not based on anything more than a gut feeling.
 
I'm surprised that the Melbourne media never humanised Seana Tapp the way they did in 1991 with Sheree Beasley.

Seana was a gorgeous little girl, she was just nine, she was a Brownie when Scouts and Guides were more relevant than they are in today's Australia.

You'd think The Sun and The Herald and The Age would have been all over it.
 
marlywings said:
Murder mystery: Could a pair of Dunlop Volleys lead to killer of cold case victims Margaret and Seana Tapp?

August 10, 2014


THIRTY years after Margaret Tapp and her daughter Seana were found dead in their suburban Melbourne home, the identity of the killer is still a mystery. But could a pair of Dunlop volleys be the key to cracking this case? And could a suspect appear out of the blue?

THE deviant who murdered Margaret Tapp then raped and killed her little girl 30 years ago this week is probably reading this, hoping no one notices his fascination. What he won’t know is that he has claimed another victim: Margaret’s only son, Justin.


Category: | The Courier Mail
Click to expand...


Could it be possible to get DNA from those Dunlop’s Volleys now?
 
Paul B. said:
The temporal perspective really hits you. For those of us who grew up in Melbourne's outer east, it still feels like yesterday... but then you remember that when Margaret and Seana were killed, there was still a "Sun" paper in the morning and a "Herald" in the afternoon. There wouldn't be a "Herald Sun" for over six years.

I think Seana was the intended victim. The attack on her was so much more brutal and sexual.

But my gut feeling tells me that the perpetrator first became familiar with the Tapps through Margaret since she had such an active social life and would have crossed paths with so many people. But that’s just my impression, not based on anything more than a gut feeling.
Click to expand...

Paul that’s what pedophiles do, they groom the family first and then move in on the child.
 
Paul B. said:
On the 6th of March, Seana would be turning 44 if a monster hadn't killed her when she was 9.

How did Melbourne let her and her Mum slip through the cracks?
Click to expand...

How many children have been harmed in that time.

If the murderer is dead then the DNA from those Volleys could one day, maybe confirm who it was through family.
 
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