First witnesses testify in 43-year-old triple murder case

A 78-year-old man has gone on trial today over a Brisbane triple murder 43 years ago.

Vincent O’Dempsey is on trial for the killings of Barbara McCulkin and her daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, and has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of deprivation of liberty.

The woman and her daughters have not been seen since disappearing from their home in Highgate Hill in Brisbane in January 1974.

Today, the first day of the trial, a woman who was the neighbour of the family and a friend of Vicki and Leanne told the court that she’d seen two men arrive at the McCulkin home in a bright-coloured Chrysler Charger on January 16, according to reports.

The woman, Juneen Gayton, who was 10 at the time, told the court that she knew one of the men by the name of Vince.

When Gayton returned to the family’s house the following day, they weren’t home, and were not seen after that date.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvL9pvkS54w

The court also heard from McCulkin’s boss, Joseph Toth, who said that the 34-year-old had come to work three times with injures she said were inflicted by her estranged husband Billy McCulkin.

But in a statement read out in court, McCulkin said that he was on friendly terms with his former partner.

And her landlord Wallace Richardson said in a statement that the woman was honest, respectful and dependable, and gave no indication that she planned to move when he collected rent from her three days before her disappearance.

Another man, Garry Dubois, has also been charged over the family’s disappearance but will be tried separately.

Do you remember the disappearance of the McCulkin family?