Case File - Karmein Chan

KARMIEN CHAN

Saturday 16.40, 13 April 1991. 

Serpells Rd, Templestowe. 

break and enter; abduction; murder; female; 13 years. 

Karmein was taken from her home on Serpells Rd, Templestowe on the 13th of April 1991. Karmein was at home babysitting her two younger sisters  while her parents were at work in their Eltham restaurant. A man entered the house wearing a balaclava and proceeded to lock the two younger girls in the cupboard. When he exited the house, he took Karmein with him. Sniffer dogs tracked his exit point through the back yard passing the tennis courts. He walked with her to his getaway car and drove away. At some point prior to entering the house he spray painted the Chan family car parked in the driveway with the words “payback Asian drug dealer, Anon, more and more to come'' Police investigated the text as an avenue of motive but declared that there was  no evidence to suggest the Chan’s were involved in any shady business dealings so  police believe this may have been  red herring - maybe not . Could it have been personal rage against Asians drug dealers,  considering Ron Iddles informant , Alfred Gay who told Iddles his friend, Lee had confessed to him that he was Mr. Cruel was  arrested and charged for drug trafficking in 1989.  It should also be noted that his co- accused were arrested in the Noble Park pub, a well known area for Asian drug dealings at that time. Unfortunately, there seems to be no public record to expand on the details of that case. 

Ron Iddles in his interview with Matt Dunlop (Melbourne

Marvels) revealed that he arrested Alf at his home in Bittern,

Victoria and charged him in relation to methamphetamine

trafficking in December 1989.

https://www.mrcruel.blog/mr-cruel/case-file-karmein-chan

Karmein never made it home. Her remains were found in a shallow grave almost one year from the date of her abduction on April 14, 1992.  She had been shot three times in the head - gangland style. The location of her remains was the Thomastown Electrical Terminal Station beside Edgar Creek. Most Austalians would remember the heart-wrenching pleas of Phylis Chan on national television begging the abductor to bring her daughter home.   Karmein was buried in a shallow grave which would indicate that it was not planned. 

The first three crimes were linked in 1990 because of the similar modus operandi of the offender in each case: Mode of entry;  Offender behaviour; Mode of release (O’Connor, 2023). Police also linked the offender to Karmein Chans’s abduction and murder on the proviso that she never returned, stating that up until the point of her abduction the behaviour of the offender was so similar that it could not be ruled out (O’Connor, 2023).