Crawford family murder

In July 1970, the bodies of Therese Crawford and her three children — Katherine Jane (12), James William (8), and Karen Jean (6) — were found inside the family's Holden FE sedan at the bottom of a cliff at Loch Ard Gorge, Port Campbell, Victoria. The car was discovered on 2 July. Therese was pregnant with a fourth child at the time of her death. The family had lived on Cardinal Road, Glenroy.

According to a July 1971 coroner's inquest, Elmer Kyle Crawford — Therese's husband and the children's father, an employee of the Victoria Racing Club (VRC) — murdered his wife and three children at the family home before staging the deaths to appear as a murder-suicide committed by Therese. Investigators noted that two weeks prior to the killings, Elmer and Therese had drafted new wills that would leave a considerable fortune to Elmer in the event of his family's death. It is believed by investigators that the impending arrival of the couple's fourth child, Therese's mental state, and possibly Elmer's theft of goods from the VRC may have been factors behind the killings.

The inquest concluded that Elmer had built an electrocution device from a 15-metre length of electrical lead and alligator clips, which he attached to Therese's ears while she slept, electrocuting her. He is found to have then killed Karen with a hammer and electrocuted both Katherine and James. Elmer then wrapped the bodies in blankets and loaded them, along with a motorbike, fuel cans, a rifle, and a hose, into the family car. He drove approximately 200 kilometres to Port Campbell, connected a hose from the exhaust to the driver's side window, and pushed the vehicle over the cliff edge, having laid a stone pathway across a drainage ditch to help the car roll forward.

Elmer Crawford, who had emigrated from Ireland in 1951, was last seen in his driveway on the day the car was discovered and has not been located since. He was reportedly spotted in 1994 in Western Australia by an acquaintance. In 2008, a A$100,000 reward was offered for information leading to his arrest. In July 2010, Victorian Police, working with the FBI, attempted to use facial recognition technology to determine whether a man who died in 2005 in San Angelo, Texas — found with no fingerprints and multiple identity documents — was Elmer Crawford. On 27 August 2010, DNA comparison with a Crawford blood relative ruled out any connection between that individual and Elmer Crawford.

The case has been the subject of media coverage, including a 2006 episode of the television program Sensing Murder, a 2011 book by Greg Fogarty, a 2016 podcast episode, and an episode of the Casefile true crime podcast.