Australia Australia - Simone Vogel, 47, Brisbane, 16 Sept 1977

Simone Vogel cold case: Brother of brothel madam 'threatened by senior police officer' in 1977
ABC News
Exclusive by Josh Bavas
Updated Sun Sep 18 18:04:33 EST 2016
Posted Sun Sep 18 12:08:30 EST 2016

View attachment 101574
Photo: Simone Vogel had been planning her son's 21st birthday the day she vanished.
Supplied

'Ms Vogel disappeared on September 16, 1977 and was last seen leaving her Kon Tiki studio at Kedron on Brisbane's northside.

Earlier in the afternoon, she had been happily planning her son's 21st birthday party.

Her manageress overheard her on the phone with an unidentified caller and told police she heard Ms Vogel say: "I'll meet you in the same parking spot that I met you at before — about half-past six."

She disappeared that night with $6,000 in cash, after making withdrawals from her parlours.

Husband reported her missing

View attachment 101575
Photo: Simone Vogel with husband Stephen Pavich (date unknown)
Supplied: State Archives Queensland

'Mr Pavich reported his wife missing to Surfers Paradise police station when she failed to return to their luxury Gold Coast canal home.'

He called around his wife's massage parlours late that evening, speaking with her employees.

Mr Pavich then asked a private investigator friend to assist, which led to the discovery of her brand new Mercedes at the Brisbane airport carpark the following day.

It was unlocked, the keys were missing, but there were no signs of a struggle.

A coronial inquest five years later found Ms Vogel most likely met with foul play.

Queensland Police told the ABC the Vogel case remained active and they appealed for anyone with information to come forward.'

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-...sing-death-threat-brother/7847966?pfmredir=sm

Inside the detective's world of conmen and murderers
Brisbane Times
Tony Moore
May 17 2016

'The disappearance of Brisbane brothel identity Simone Vogel in September 1977, 10 years before the Fitzgerald Inquiry in 1987 began to probe links between corrupt police and Brisbane brothels, was another revealing investigation for the then-junior consorting squad detective.

In those days convicted corrupt cop Jack Herbert ran Brisbane's licensing branch and before Herbert's death on the Gold Coast in 2004, he admitted receiving and distributing more than $3 million in corrupt payments over a decade or more.

A decade before the Fitzgerald Inquiry, after Keith Smith naively told his then-boss, former CIB chief detective Tony Murphy – also now dead, he suspected corrupt police may be involved in Simone Vogel's disappearance, he and his partner were taken off her murder investigation.

A report he later wrote to a different senior officer on Simone Vogel's disappearance was shredded.

Simone Vogel, also known as Norma June Pavich, or Norma June Beniston, had more than 100 convictions for prostitution in Sydney before she shifted to Brisbane after the 1968 car bomb murder of Sydney vice-king Joe Borg to begin a series of "health studios" or massage parlours in Brisbane.

The retired detective said tax receipts showed Simone Vogel's network of eight massage parlours in Brisbane made a net personal profit of $4000 a week in 1977, equivalent to $16,250 a week in 2016.'

'Simone Vogel – who frequently wore wigs as a disguise – had lived on the Gold Coast in a canal-side luxury home at Broadbeach Waters.

He said police were never able to find her killer, but discovered on the day of her disappearance she arranged for two $3000 cash payments from her massage parlours.

Smith doubts she faked her disappearance because she was arranging a 21st birthday party for her son.

"All that we know was that on that final day she received two phone calls. The first was setting up a meeting and then she said she needed the $3000 cash," he said.

She got a second $3000 from another of her brothels.

"During a second phone call, 'She said words to the effect, 'I'll meet you in the place where we met before.

"It could have been her last corrupt payment," Smith said.

"Who knows? It could have been.

"But I'm only surmising."'

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...-of-conmen-and-murderers-20160517-gox7ja.html

Bohemian said:

Inside the detective's world of conmen and murderers
Brisbane Times
Tony Moore
May 17 2016

'The disappearance of Brisbane brothel identity Simone Vogel in September 1977, 10 years before the Fitzgerald Inquiry in 1987 began to probe links between corrupt police and Brisbane brothels, was another revealing investigation for the then-junior consorting squad detective.

In those days convicted corrupt cop Jack Herbert ran Brisbane's licensing branch and before Herbert's death on the Gold Coast in 2004, he admitted receiving and distributing more than $3 million in corrupt payments over a decade or more.

A decade before the Fitzgerald Inquiry, after Keith Smith naively told his then-boss, former CIB chief detective Tony Murphy – also now dead, he suspected corrupt police may be involved in Simone Vogel's disappearance, he and his partner were taken off her murder investigation.

A report he later wrote to a different senior officer on Simone Vogel's disappearance was shredded.

Simone Vogel, also known as Norma June Pavich, or Norma June Beniston, had more than 100 convictions for prostitution in Sydney before she shifted to Brisbane after the 1968 car bomb murder of Sydney vice-king Joe Borg to begin a series of "health studios" or massage parlours in Brisbane.

The retired detective said tax receipts showed Simone Vogel's network of eight massage parlours in Brisbane made a net personal profit of $4000 a week in 1977, equivalent to $16,250 a week in 2016.'

'Simone Vogel – who frequently wore wigs as a disguise – had lived on the Gold Coast in a canal-side luxury home at Broadbeach Waters.

He said police were never able to find her killer, but discovered on the day of her disappearance she arranged for two $3000 cash payments from her massage parlours.

Smith doubts she faked her disappearance because she was arranging a 21st birthday party for her son.

"All that we know was that on that final day she received two phone calls. The first was setting up a meeting and then she said she needed the $3000 cash," he said.

She got a second $3000 from another of her brothels.

"During a second phone call, 'She said words to the effect, 'I'll meet you in the place where we met before.

"It could have been her last corrupt payment," Smith said.

"Who knows? It could have been.

"But I'm only surmising."'

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/que...-of-conmen-and-murderers-20160517-gox7ja.html

Click to expand...

Eerily similar players. Probable connection IMO.

Shirley Brifman: a timeline of a brothel madam and whistleblower
UPDATED THU JAN 19 16:49:07 EST 2017

'Run-ins with 'The Rat Pack'
1958

The Brifmans moved to Brisbane, where Mrs Brifman worked in a brothel under the name "Marge Chapple".

She met Tony Murphy, Glen Hallahan and Terry Lewis — corrupt police officers who would rise to the top of the force and later be known by the nickname "The Rat Pack".'

'Brifman found dead
March 4, 1972

Having fled back to Queensland, the Brifmans and their three children began living in a police safe house on Bonney Avenue, Clayfield.

It was now matter of weeks before Tony Murphy's perjury trial, which Brifman had been called to front as the chief witness.

According to Condon's book, a stranger came to the door and handed her a vial late at night.

'The next morning the 35-year-old was found dead in a bedroom by her children, her head propped up by pillows.'

'The cause of death was listed as "barbiturate intoxication". Police at the time did not consider her death to be suspicious and the case was closed.'

'The Fitzgerald Inquiry, which exposed widespread corruption in the state, failed to find any link between Murphy and Brifman's death.'

'Queensland Government announcement
January 19, 2017

Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath announced that she has asked the state coroner to make further inquiries into Brifman's death "in the interest of justice".

"The coroner will, upon making those inquiries, be in the position to determine whether an inquest should be held," Ms D'ath said.'

RELATED

Shirley Brifman: Coroner to investigate whether inquest should be done into 1972 death of Brisbane brothel madam
UPDATED THU JAN 19 17:41:00 EST 2017

'The coroner will investigate whether an inquest should be held into the death of brothel madam Shirley Brifman in Brisbane 45 years ago, Queensland's Attorney-General says.

The 35-year-old's body was found by her daughter at a police safe house at Clayfield on Brisbane's northside in 1972.

She was due to appear as a chief witness in a perjury case against senior Queensland detective Tony Murphy.

Authorities at the time ruled Ms Brifman died of a drug overdose and no inquest was ever held into her death.'

The brother of a wealthy brothel madam, feared murdered, hopes new information could re-open the cold case more than 40 years after her disappearance.

Taxi driver's info could spark new look at 40-year-old disappearance of brothel madam

Just heard today on Radio National, this episode of an ABC podcast. From June 2022

A new generation of madams and sex workers begin to find their place in the Sunshine State. An enterprising Simone Vogel stands out in the crowd, until she disappears.

36 min Audio