From Murderlaide to Methelaide - shocking pictures that show how the City of Churches became the City of Junkies

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Adelaide has long struggled to shake off its reputation as the 'bizarre' murder capital of Australia.
The South Australian city - known as the City of Churches - also has another, much darker name: Murderlaide - due to its connections with grisly killings, such as the Snowtown Bodies in the Barrels and the Family Murders.
Now, it appears to be developing another sinister moniker - Methelaide.
A 2017 wastewater study published in Addiction Journal found Adelaide had the highest usage in the world among the 120 cities profiled.
And things haven't improved since then.
A Daily Mail investigation in Adelaide's northern suburbs, including Elizabeth and Salisbury, has revealed a disturbing reality for residents and business owners, who said assaults, break-ins and homelessness are rife.
Elizabeth resident Kristie McRobert, 61, revealed she was in the grips of methamphetamine and heroin addiction, but is now 'off and on' methadone to combat it.
'I struggled to get off it, but I have succeeded, in the end. It's terrible to see people addicted, because I've been there and done it, and I know how hard it is to get off it.'
Kristie said the drug is 'everywhere' and her 35-year-old homeless son is also a user.
'You can buy it anywhere. Everywhere you go, people are smoking it. Back (when I did it) a bag of it cost $40 and that lasted you six hours,' she said.
'It's out of control. I've been robbed for my mobile phone, inside my own house. (Someone who is addicted) just walked into my house... she hurt me. She pushed me to get to my phone. She told me if I called the police she would come back for me.'
Kristie showed Daily Mail a corner of the derelict Elizabeth North shopping centre that was 'blown up' in February.
The blackened ruins are still visible.
'My son was living in there. It's such a relief he wasn't inside when it happened,' she said.
'Lots of people used to shoot up in there.
'Something should be done. At least they have to help the homeless or something, because that's where it starts. We need a (government) grant or something to stop it.'
A concerned businessman within the shopping centre, who asked not to be named, slammed police for not doing enough to combat the problem.
He said his business has suffered seven break-ins in the past five years.
One incident, which he believes was committed by juvenile wards of the state, cost him $2,500 in damages to his glass windows.
Most shops within the once-thriving complex are closed, with their windows covered in newspaper.
'You see people shooting up out the back all the time,' the businessman said.
'I've seen people passed out, vomit everywhere. I've phoned the cops, and the cops have said, "Nah he's just coming down," and left them there.'
The man said the situation has 'definitely' worsened in recent months.
'The coppers don't even worry about it. The government isn't worried about it. People like us who work hard, we get hit with taxes and all the other s***, and these people do whatever they want, take drugs, and get away with a slap on the wrist, and get back on the drugs.
'They don't have to look for work, they don't have to do s***. It sickens me. These people need to be reprimanded. They need to pay for what they do wrong.
'They need counselling to help them get off it, because they're a waste to society.'
A group of people - which grew from five to around 15 as the afternoon wore on - were photographed drinking bottles of beer and cider outside the Parabanks Shopping Centre, 6km away in Salisbury, for several hours.
They yelled amongst themselves and heckled shoppers exiting shops.
One man was seen handing Coronas out of a carton - which costs $69 for a case of 24 - to his mates.
Another man with a heavy chain wrapped around his torso was seen clutching a six-pack of cider, while a woman was chugging purple liquid from an unlabelled plastic bottle.
The drinkers cavorted for several hours, unchecked, despite the area being a dry zone.
A recent SA Government Preventative Health wastewater analysis study revealed that while the state's methamphetamine use numbers dropped briefly after the 2017 Addiction Journal's study - which revealed Adelaide's meth use was significantly higher than notorious US city Seattle - they soared back to almost the same numbers by last year.
It found meth showed the highest amount of illicit stimulants tested, which also included cocaine and MDMA.
A South Australia Police spokesperson told Daily Mail: 'Northern District police maintain strong engagement with the community, local businesses, support services, the Council, and other stakeholders to identify and address issues impacting the community.
'Police regularly patrol the major shopping centres and business districts within the Northern District, providing a highly visible presence to deter and detect offending.
'Police actively encourage the community to report incidents of crime or antisocial behaviour at the time on 131 444, or triple zero (000) in an emergency.'
ADELAIDE'S GRISLY HISTORY
Crime is synonymous with Adelaide - not for the frequency, in fact it has a lower murder rate than the national average - but the horrendous nature of its documented slayings.
A British TV documentary, The Trials of Joanne Lees, branded the city the 'murder capital of the world', after Bradley Murdoch - who abducted her and killed her partner Peter Falconio - was arrested in Adelaide on an unrelated kidnap and assault charge.
Adelaide's northern suburbs first shot to international infamy through Snowtown's Bodies in the Barrels murders, committed by Salisbury North resident John Bunting, along with Robert Wagner and James Vlassakis between 1992 and 1999.
While murdered victims were discovered in barrels in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, north of Adelaide, some of the 12 people were actually slaughtered in Salisbury.
Clinton Tresize was beaten to death with a shovel in Bunting's Salisbury North home in 1992, and Suzanne Allen's body was found buried in the backyard of the same property in 1999, wrapped in 11 different plastic bags.
The killers sadistically tortured many victims before butchering them.
THE FAMILY MURDERS
In the 1970s and 80s, a group of men nicknamed The Family were believed to be involved in the murder of five teenage boys, including Adelaide newsreader Rob Kelvin's son Richard in 1984.
Adelaide accountant Bevan Spencer Von Einem was convicted of Richard's murder and is serving a life sentence in Port Augusta prison.
THE BEAUMONT CHILDREN
The disappearance of siblings Jane, Arnna and Grant Beaumont from Adelaide's bustling Glenelg Beach on January 26, 1966, has never been solved. They have been missing for 59 years, and it's suspected they were abducted and murdered.
Their disappearance sparked an ongoing wave of 'stranger danger' fears in the state.
ADELAIDE OVAL ABDUCTIONS
Thought to be possibly connected to the Beaumont children, was the disappearance of Kirste Gordon and Joanne Ratcliffe from Adelaide Oval in August 1973.
The children attended a footy match between Norwood and North Adelaide with their respective families. The two families were seated next to each other.
Ratcliffe's parents and Gordon's grandmother, who were friends, let the young girls go to the toilet together, but they did not return.
Despite several sightings of the girls in the 90 minutes after they went to the bathroom - including one witness claiming to have seen a man carrying a distressed Gordon, but dismissing it as a father with his daughter - they have not been seen since.
The case remains open, and a $1 million reward for the Ratcliffe-Gordon, along with the Beaumont children, is still on offer for anyone with information that leads to solving their disappearances.