Police errors taint case

AGED 20 and single, Victoria Cafasso had the world at her feet.

The attractive Italian law student had only been in Tasmania five days before she had everything murderously taken away.

It was a crime, in conjunction with the disappearance of German tourist Nancy Grundwaldt two years earlier, that rocked the state's East Coast.

It sparked a national and international investigation that offered a $100,000 reward to anyone with information that led to an arrest.

Yet it still remains unsolved, 20 years on.

Miss Cafasso was beaten unconscious and stabbed 21 times during a struggle for her life.

She was the daughter of "affluent" parents. Her mother Xenia managed a family-owned travel agency and her father Guiseppe was a practising solicitor.

A coronial report detailed that Miss Cafasso had deferred her law degree in July 1995, to stay with her grandparents in England, before deciding to visit Australia and her cousin — then Beaumaris resident Simon De Salis.

Miss Cafasso arrived in Launceston at 1.50pm on Friday, October 6 and from the airport to Mr De Salis's residence, Larby Cottage, the pair stopped at popular East Coast surfing spot Shelleys Point between Scamander and Beaumaris.

While Mr De Salis was in the water, Miss Cafasso meet residents of the region and had her first contact with the southern end of Beaumaris Beach — subsequently to be the crime scene.

"Between the time of her arrival in Tasmania until the 11th of October 1995, the deceased had remained with De Salis at Beaumaris and had very limited contact with other person(s) except for a social event they attended, being a small private birthday party for a Mandy-Lou Larby on Monday the 9th of October," coroner Don Jones's report said.

It said Miss Cafasso could only have had contact with people on two other occasions, on short walks on October 9 (she visited Hilda Jackson) and 10.

On what turned out to be Miss Cafasso's final day — Wednesday, October 11 — evidence at the 2003 inquest into her death suggested she advised Mr De Salis about 8.10am that she was going to the beach for a walk and borrowed a small carry bag.

Miss Cafasso reportedly left for the Beaumaris Beach about 9am and based on information from Iris Smith she was wearing "a light brownish skirt or similar and a darker top . . . a sleeveless singlet type".

However, the report said that when found dead in the water Miss Cafasso was wearing "a two piece bikini, being blue and white floral", with white sand shoes, a watch, bangle, ring or necklace in the area near the murder scene 55 metres up the four-kilometre beach.

"There is no independent evidence that the deceased was carrying a borrowed carry bag which contained a large beach towel, a flask of water, a Sony walkman (radio), sunglasses, sun cream, scarf and a purse containing personal papers, $509 in Australian currency and some foreign currency, although these items were located within the area of disturbed sand," the report said.

Mr Jones determined based on evidence from six witnesses that Miss Cafasso accessed Beaumaris Beach opposite the Surfside Hotel, where Mrs Smith had seen her sunbaking 700 metres south.

It is possible 50 walkers, fishers and swimmers accessed the beach between 8.30am and the time Margaret McIntyre discovered her naked body about 1.30pm near Freshwater Creek.

The body was at the water's edge being lapped over by tidal action from where Mrs McIntyre went to raise the alarm with nearby residents Russell Harwood and Geoffrey Adams.

From there early investigations began, which Mr Jones was critical of.

Sergeant Galloway, Senior Constable Pedder and Constable Ferguson arrived about 1.37pm to find Mr Adams by the body.

There were claims that Constable Stingel was the first to the scene, which Mr Jones deemed incorrect.

"As to the next sequence of events, there is a considerable amount of confusion of the evidence of the three officers and the accounts given by Harwood and Adams as to their movements, state of the tide and actions undertaken by police at this time," the report said.

"Firstly, Mr Adams in his evidence refers to two footprints approximately six to seven metres north-west of the body.

"He described these footprints as being '. . . bare footprints and seemed to be of a man, the front part of the footprint appeared deeper than the back and they were pointing towards the water'.

"It would seem that no police officer observed these footprints nor were they photographed or casts made of the impressions.

"Mr Adams's evidence was that he had observed these footprints during the estimated 20 minutes that he stood with the body of the deceased whilst waiting for the arrival of the police."

There was confusion as to who took photographs, with a bunch showing Miss Cafasso's body at the waters edge and others indicating that the body had been moved by police — despite a number of officers saying they were unaware of the body being moved.

Mr Adams stated that police also requested he find a tarpaulin to cover the body.

"I can draw the inference that during the period that Adams has left to obtain the tarpaulin the deceased's body was moved and this was observed by Mr Harwood who had a clear memory of the body being moved," the report said.

"I am unable to say which police officer(s) were involved in the moving of the body but I am satisfied that it was done for the purposes of preserving evidence and with the authorisation of the CIB, Launceston."

Police conducted a search of the area and found the likely crime scene 55 metres away where personal items (spread 8.5 metres around the site) and various footprints, with markings in the sand suggesting a violent struggle.

A road block, door knocking and a search of the beach area was conducted by police.

An examination of the crime scene by Launceston detectives and forensic personnel said Miss Cafasso's body was naked except for a pink bikini top above her breasts.

She had been stabbed many times with a knife and bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument in a frenzied attack to the face, chest, head, back and arms.

She was missing three teeth and suffered many facial fractures.

A post mortem by then state forensic pathologist Tim Lyons determined the cause of death as "exsanguination due to multiple stab wounds including wounds to the right atrium".

Despite people frequently visiting the beach and workers in the area —no cries for help were heard.

After information from the St Helens harbour master and an oceanographer, concerning sand markings from the disturbed area being washed away, it was determined that the murder took place between 11.30am to 12.40pm.

Miss Cafasso's parents and grandmother Juliette Angelestri came to Tasmania and visited the site of her murder just days later.

Guiseppe died several weeks later after suffering a heart attack at a memorial service organised for his daughter in London.

No eye witnesses to the fatal attack have ever been located. No one has been charged. The killer is still at large.