Convicted Child Murderer Bevan Spencer von Einem Gravely Ill in Prison

Bevan Spencer von Einem, the convicted murderer of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin, has been transferred to Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide, where he is in serious condition and reportedly has only a short time to live.

Von Einem, 79, was moved from Port Augusta Prison, where he had been held since 2007. He was convicted in 1984 for the sexually motivated murder of Richard Kelvin, the son of former Adelaide Nine News presenter Rob Kelvin. The teenager disappeared in June 1983 and was later found near Mount Crawford in the Adelaide Hills.

Although eligible for parole in 2007 after serving 24 years, von Einem never applied and remained behind bars. South Australia’s former premier, Mike Rann, had stated that von Einem would never leave prison alive.

Authorities have long suspected von Einem may have been involved in other crimes, part of a series of unsolved cases known as the “Family Murders” in Adelaide during the 1970s and 1980s. These cases involved the deaths of several young men and teenagers, including Alan Barnes, Peter Stogneff, Neil Muir, and Mark Langley. A 2020 Crime Stoppers report indicated investigators believe more than one person was involved in Richard Kelvin’s murder.

Deputy Premier Kyam Maher said he felt no remorse for von Einem, calling him a figure whose crimes horrified South Australians for decades.

Criminologist Associate Professor Xanthé Mallett told ABC Radio Adelaide it was unlikely von Einem would confess to any additional crimes, noting that his actions suggested a lack of guilt or conscience.

Von Einem was also sentenced in 2009 to an additional three months for possessing child abuse material in his cell, although the court found he had not written the materials himself.

As von Einem nears the end of his life, families of victims from the “Family Murders” remain without answers to decades-old crimes.