True Crime Collection

Bega Schoolgirl Murders

The girls began to question the men, asking if they were going to be murdered. Leslie assured the girls they would only be tied up so the men could make their escape. During this time Lindsay recalled Leslie repeating the words, "They can't go back", referring to his intention to murder the girls to avoid detection for their crimes. 

The final stop, at about 8 am the following morning, was at Fiddler's Green Creek, located just south of the Victoria/New South Wales border. The girls' hands were bound and they were then ordered along a remote bush track over rugged terrain to the creek. After the group walked alongside the creek for several hundred metres, Leslie ordered the girls to remove their clothing and wash their bodies thoroughly to remove any evidence of the prior sexual assaults. Afterwards, the girls were then ordered to lie on their stomachs before being retied and gagged. They were then separated by a distance of approximately 30 metres as Leslie and Lindsay discussed what to do next. Leslie demanded Lindsay drown the girls but Lindsay protested, saying it was unfair that he had to kill both. Lindsay eventually complied when an argument occurred and Leslie threatened to stab him if he did not comply. 

Lindsay attempted to first drown Lauren, who was tied up near the creek. After a struggle, he became angry when his knee became wet. He reached for his knife and stabbed Lauren in the neck, accidentally cutting his thumb. Lindsay described the scene to police as follows, 

"I went over to Lauren and dragged her down to the water. I held her head under the water. She was struggling and she knocked me into the water. One of my knees, I think the left went into the water. This p****d me off a little bit and I opened my knife, it was in my left hand and I stabbed Lauren in the left side of the neck. I said in my interview that it was the right side of the neck with my right hand but I am been thinking since. It wasn't my right thumb which was cut but my left. After a couple of seconds after I stabbed her she stopped moving."

Lindsay then ran up the embankment towards Nichole who was tied to a tree and out of view of Lauren who now lay dying in the creek bed. Lindsay slashed Nichole's throat several times then began to punch and kick her when he realised she had not died instantly from the knife wounds. 

"After I stabbed Lauren, I ran up the bank to where I tied Nichole up. She must have heard what I had done to Lauren because when I got to her she said, 'You're going to killing me, aren't you.' I said 'Shut up' and walked around to her left side and I cut her throat 2 or 3 times. This was across her throat. The knife was in my left hand. Nichole was sitting down when I cut her throat.

After this she was thrashing around on the ground. She was trying to scream but nothing was coming out. I think I kicked her because she wouldn't keep still. And then I put my foot on to her to keep her still. This didn't work so I stabbed her in the throat. I aimed and stabbed at the hard thing in her neck. I pushed the knife all the way in but she still wouldn't keep still so I worked out where her heart would be and I stabbed her on the left side of the chest. 

She still didn't stop moving so I stabbed her in the front of the chest. I was aiming for her heart. I needed 2 hands to get the knife through her chest. She kept moving so I kicked her in the head a couple of times. She still kept moving but she was slowing down. I waited until she stopped moving which didn't take long."

After the murders, Leslie, who was not present during the murders and was waiting in the car, asked Lindsay "Did you see the demon?". The pair quickly left the crime scene with Lindsay driving and returned to New South Wales. 

Lindsay drove from the murder scene while Leslie slept in the vehicle, and woke as the pair approached Canberra. They stopped at Theodore Lookout on the Monaro Highway and burned their blood stained clothing, ropes and gags used to restrain the girls. The pair later throw their knives from the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge into Lake Burley Griffin before returning to their homes in Yass.