Fears of serial killer after bodies found

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - Police are hunting a possible serial killer in the North Queensland beef city of Rockhampton after the discovery of the remains of three women dumped near popular holiday beaches.

The skeleton of the first victim was found in November and the others two weeks ago, but police have played down the discoveries as the work of a single murderer and have refused to discuss the progress of their investigation.

Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said that while the murders ranked in importance with a multimillion-dollar extortion attempt against one of Australia's largest pharmaceutical companies, details would not be released for sound operational and legal reasons.

The identities of the victims are at present being checked by DNA testing, and homicide, forensic and technical teams have been sent from Brisbane, about 600km to the south.

But the remains have been linked in local media reports with the disappearances over the past three years of a Rockhampton teenager and two women in their 30s.

The first to disappear was 14-year-old Natasha Ryan, who has not been seen since early September 1998.

She left home for high school on September 2 and was last seen by friends two days later, wearing surfie gear.

The following December, Julie Dawn Turner, aged 39, disappeared after reportedly becoming intoxicated at Rockhampton's Airport Liberties nightclub and trying to borrow money for a taxi.

On March 1, 1999, Beverly Doreen Leggo, 36, disappeared near the nightclub. The next day, her handbag, with her driver's licence and credit cards, was found weighted down with stones on the banks of the Nerimbera River, a boating and recreation area east of Rockhampton.

The two women were similar in age, appearance and personalities.

Their disappearances, and the possibility of a serial killer on the loose, have shocked Rockhampton, a conservative city of 54,000, sited inland on the Fitzroy River, at the heart of one of Australia's prime cattle regions.

The first discovery was made last November by holidaymakers in the sand dunes of Yeppoon, a beachside resort on Queensland's Capricorn Coast and a starting point for Great Keppel Island and the Great Barrier Reef.

Shortly before Christmas, the skeletal remains of the other two bodies were found in bushland near the coast - one near a swimming hole at Nankin Creek and the other at Kinka Beach, both close to Yeppoon. None of the remains had been buried.

A police spokesman said the remains appeared to have been left hidden in undergrowth.

Police last year reportedly investigated a suspect in Natasha Ryan's disappearance, and this week interviewed a man in connection with the discoveries of the two recent bodies.

Mr Atkinson has called for calm in Rockhampton, saying he did not believe there was a serial killer on the loose.

"I think the people of Rockhampton can be quite reassured ... that the police, I believe, are doing a fine job with this matter and I do not believe that they have any immediate reason for concern."