The Family Murders

The Family Murders is the name given to a series of five murders in the state of South Australia, speculated to have been committed by a loosely connected group of individuals who came to be known as "The Family". This group was believed to be involved in the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a number of teenage boys and young men, as well as the torture and murder of five young men aged between 14 and 25, in Adelaide, South Australia, in the 1970s and 1980s. Only one suspect was eventually charged and convicted for one of the crimes: Bevan Spencer von Einem was sentenced in 1984 to a minimum of 24 years (later extended to a minimum 36-year term, and later for the term of his life) for the murder of 15-year-old Richard Kelvin. The other murders remain unsolved; Von Einem died on 5 December 2025 without offering any new information. Rewards remain outstanding for information leading to other convictions for the murders.