RELATED CONTENT: Vile crime still shocks
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A TRUCK driver living in Western Australia’s The Pilbara believes he may have came face to face with a heinous killer.
‘Nugget’ Wright is convinced he met and spoke to Elmer Crawford, the man believed to be responsible for the 1970 deaths of his wife Therese and their children Kathryn, 13, James, 8, and Karen, 6.
The cold case is one that cast a shadow over the seaside town of Port Campbell and haunts the police officers involved.
On July 3, 1970 the four Crawford family members were found dead on a ledge above the blow hole, near Port Campbell.
The four had been given electric shocks, suffocated, bashed and mutilated.
A hose leading into their car had been attached to the exhaust, apparently to give the impression of a murder/suicide.
Police have long believed Mr Crawford killed his family members and then fled.
“I would think the answer to it all lies in Elmer Crawford,” Detective Sergeant Harry Morrison told Channel 7.
Mr Wright appears to believe the retired detective.
The man he believes was Mr Crawford told him we was from Melbourne.
“I said ‘where’s your missus’ and he told me she was long gone,” Mr Wright told Channel 7.
He told Mr Wright he came to Western Australia in 1970.
Mr Wright asked the man why he decided to relocate.
“He said ‘I had to leave in a hurry, I did something terrible. That’s when the penny dropped and I’m putting two and two together. I said ‘aren’t you that bloke the Victorian coppers were up here looking for a couple of weeks ago.”
Mr Wright said the man’s body language changed, his head dropped and his shoulders shrunk.
He believes the man he was talking to had a “shit I’ve told this bloke too much” moment.
If Mr Crawford is still alive he would be aged in his late 80s.
Retired Detective Adrian Donehue hopes Mr Crawford will be found and justice will be served.
“We were very satisfied that he was the person we were looking for,” Mr Donehue said.
“Its definitely solvable if you get the right information. We’ve got everything else – all we need is the body."
