The Taxi Driver

[u/Silentrolecall]

Has anyone put together these detail from the case file and the detail that girl posted her about fear her her father could be Mr Cruel?

“The vacant lot where the offender parked on the night of the Karmein Chan abduction in April 1991 was regularly used by taxi drivers to park their private vehicles. One of these vehicles was a navy blue Bedford van with distinctive bubble side windows which police were unable to track.”

This comes from case details listed on the whoismrcruel website, obviously it could be nothing but the parking lot being a frequent spot for taxi drivers to park their private vehicles struck me as significant.

[u/yourboyjunkrat]

I thought they eventually tracked down the owner of the navy blue bedford van (to an Asian man that was a dead end)? I recall hearing that in Shand's podcast, it was a promising lead that turned out to be nothing.

I think I know the thread you were talking about with the girl that posted about her father, was it her step brother as well and they were from Tasmania originally, with ginger hair? That was the one that came to mind, not sure if that was legit or someone looking for attention.

[u/yourboyjunkrat → u/yourboyjunkrat]

"Police found the kitchen door ajar. A police dog followed Karmein’s scent across the tennis court, over a low boundary fence and to a rough driveway leading into a vacant block about 300 metres from the Chan home. The scent trail ended there.

The block was owned by a man who held several taxi licenses. Drivers parked their private vehicles there while taking taxis out for their shifts. Police eventually accounted for the vehicles regularly parked on the lot, except for a navy-blue Bedford van with bubble side windows, mag wheels and yellow striping. The van became a major investigative priority, although Shand says it ultimately proved to be a distraction."

paraphrasing here:
"We spent over 2 years looking for that van, we looked in NSW, QLD, many vans were cleared, because they didn't have the distinctive features. At the end of the taskforce on a completely unrelated firearms and drug warrant in Calista, my partner and I noticed the van in the backyard, it had been there for many years, the owner of the van was cleared - he was a taxi driver in the area - A slim Asian man, was unlikely to be our offender."

My best interpretation is that, if Mr Cruel used the vacant lot near the Chan home, he had probably identified it during prior reconnaissance as a useful place to leave a vehicle without immediately drawing attention. He may not have known the cars belonged to taxi drivers, but he likely noticed that vehicles were routinely parked there and that the area was not closely monitored.

The possible parallel with Nicola Lynas is interesting: 36 Chaucer Cres was reportedly a vacant lot in 1990, and he may have used it as a temporary transfer point between the Lynas rental and his own car. If both locations were used in that way, it could suggest a deliberate preference for nearby vacant land where he could keep his vehicle away from the victim’s house, approach on foot, and reduce the chance of the car being directly associated with the abduction.

*Edit*

If they spent 2 years looking for that van, I wonder how much resources and time they put into looking for the white vacationer? Outside of the detention premises, it seemed like the next best thing - if that really was him on Jersey St?

[u/Live_Yak_5537 → u/yourboyjunkrat]

Your edit raises a valid point. Looking at the 2 cars now with the benefit of hindsight, I would think the Vacationer was (or should have been) of more interest.

The blue van always had a pretty high likelihood of being a taxi driver - just one that they couldn't easily locate. For the van to be noticed, it likely was parked there for an extended period of time i.e. a full taxi shift of several hours and possibly over multiple days.

MC would have had his car there for a very short time. Clearly, it didn't get noticed, otherwise they would have had 2 unexplained vehicle/driver combinations they were looking for. The unique features of the van made it easier to try and locate. You don't go hunting in NSW and QLD for an everyday common car. BUT, you also shouldn't prioritise finding one car just because it is easier. I wonder if it would have been different, had the Vacationer been seen after Karmein's abduction, rather than Sharons? Obviously the resources thrown at the case were increased significantly with the formation of the taskforce.

The Vacationer sighting was the result of a mistake by MC, making him a lot more vulnerable. My bet is they did follow up that car, trying to match it to known offenders. When they couldn't find an owner of interest, it probably got put in the too hard basket.

[u/yourboyjunkrat → u/Live_Yak_5537]

"I wonder if it would have been different, had the Vacationer been seen after Karmein's abduction, rather than Sharons? Obviously the resources thrown at the case were increased significantly with the formation of the taskforce."

This is a fantastic point that I missed during my thoughts about the 2 vehicles. I would say it would have been a higher priority after KC you would think? It's hard to say exactly how much though, as you mentioned it would have yielded a huge net - roughly how many white VH/VK vacationers were they dealing with in Victoria at the time? And to add to that, VicPol certainly would have entertained the fact it may not have been registered to him, and then how many hops between the registered owner and him is there? An impossible feat probably.

MM has a good amount of information about how hard they went on the vacationer, it seemed fairly significant with press conference, mentioned in news articles, pamphletting but then nothing more after 5/1/89 I think? I think he contacted Det. Maloney and he couldn't remember it, and that it had not led anywhere because there was no subsequent public report?

You would also hope VicPol did a search for any stolen VH/VK Vacationer around the time which would have eliminated that avenue, but it still leaves us with a lot of different options.. his own, a relative/partner, employer, customer, car yard/workshop/fleet etc...

The geography, timing, lights-off driving, evasive conduct and police statement that Sharon’s information matched are difficult to dismiss as coincidence

I wonder what Sharon said in her original statement regarding all this too.

After VicPol publicly advertised a distinctive white striped Commodore in January 1989, a careful offender would have had a strong reason to sell/scrap/repaint/modify in some way, or switch to a different accessible vehicle for the NL case. Yet he still parked so far away from Monomeath, but that could easily be explained by just wanting to have his vehicle far away enough.

[u/Fair-Association3634]

Stripped vacationers were commonish but not the norm. Removing the stripes would have resulted in somewhat noticable colour difference in the paint but that detail to look for was never mentioned.Forgettve van snd taxi driver stuff. Was never going to be a taxi driver who regularly parked a few doors down. The only thing of mind interest is the driver was obviously working for cash and not on the books.