$108,000 rewards to solve baffling cases

Rewards for a string of unsolved crimes in South Australia have each been lifted to A$100,000 ($108,000), including the state's most baffling case - the missing Beaumont children.

The Beaumonts, Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, have not been seen since a trip to Adelaide's Glenelg Beach in January 1966.

Despite thousands of reported sightings, the help of police in New Zealand, Britain and the United States and even the involvement of a clairvoyant, their fate remains a mystery.

But until now information that might provide a breakthrough has carried a reward of just A$1000 ($1096).

Police Minister Kevin Foley said yesterday that the increase in the rewards followed a request from Police Commissioner Mal Hyde.

Most cases had not had their rewards upgraded since they were announced.


"It is hoped that by increasing the rewards, people with information relating to these crimes will be encouraged to come forward with new information," Mr Foley said.

Other prominent cases to have had their rewards increased include the drowning of homosexual Adelaide University professor George Duncan in 1972.

Dr Duncan was thrown into the city's River Torrens at a spot known as a meeting place for gay men. Two vice squad police officers were charged with manslaughter but were acquitted at trial.

The reward for information that might lead to a conviction in that case was increased from A$25,000 ($27,403).

Other cases include the 1983 abduction of 10-year-old schoolgirl Louise Bell, who was snatched from the bedroom of her suburban Hackham West home and the disappearance of friends Joanne Ratcliffe, 11 and Kirstie Gordon, 4, who went missing from Adelaide Oval during a football match in 1973.

The reward for information about the murder of Neil Muir in 1979 increased from A$15,000 ($16,270).

Muir's body was found in Adelaide's Port River, cut into 43 pieces and stuffed inside a plastic bag.

His death was thought to be one of the infamous family killings, a string of murders in the 1970s and 1980s that were attributed to a high-powered group of homosexuals. No evidence that the family ever existed has ever been uncovered.

- AAP