SA: Court told Snowtown victim s body stored in separate barrels

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2000
SA: Court told Snowtown victim s body stored in separate barrels

(EDS: Please note evidence contained in this story cannot be broadcast or published
in South Australia.)





A South Australian court has heard the body of an alleged Snowtown murder victim was
stored in separate barrels after the legs were cut off.

Pathologist Dr JOHN GILBERT told the Adelaide Magistrates Court he performed post
mortem examinations on four of the 10 victims police allege were murdered by four men.

Three of the charged men -- 28-year-old ROBERT JOE WAGNER of Elizabeth Grove; 34-year-old
JOHN JUSTIN BUNTING of Craigmore; and 42-year-old MARK RAY HAYDON of Smithfield Plains
-- have not entered a plea at their committal hearing to 10 charges of murder.

A fourth man, 20-year-old JAMES SPYRIDON VLASSAKIS, of Craigmore, hasn't entered a
plea on five counts of murder.

The charges relate to eight bodies found in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, north
of Adelaide, in May last year.

In the case of WAGNER, BUNTING and HAYDON, the charges also relate to two more bodies
found buried in a backyard at suburban Salisbury North.

Dr GILBERT told the court today he was unable to identify a cause of death in two of
the four post mortem examinations because the bodies had been stored in barrels of water.

Magistrate DAVID GURRY spent the majority of the day hearing arguments on interim suppression
orders applied on yesterday's opening address by the Crown prosecutor and evidence from
SA's chief forensic pathologist, Dr ROSS JAMES.

AAP RTV sl/hn/jnA

KEYWORD: SNOWTOWN (ADELAIDE)

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