Solved case · 2013
The short answer
Melbourne interior designer Stuart Rattle was murdered by his partner of 16 years, Michael Anthony O'Neill, at their South Yarra home in December 2013 after an argument; O'Neill later set fire to the house and pleaded guilty to murder and arson.
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Suggest coverage for Murder of Stuart RattleStuart Charles Rattle (16 November 1960 – 4 December 2013) was an Australian interior designer and owner of Stuart Rattle Interior Design, a Melbourne firm known for high-end residential work. His design work was featured in publications such as Belle magazine and on the television program Gardening Australia.
Rattle's partner of 16 years, Michael Anthony O'Neill, was originally from Ireland and had been working as a waiter at an Italian bistro when the two met in the 1990s. O'Neill subsequently began working for Rattle's design firm, handling accounting, quoting, invoicing and stock ordering for clients.
On 4 December 2013, following an argument, O'Neill struck Rattle with a frying pan and then strangled him with a dog leash inside their South Yarra home. In the days after the killing, O'Neill maintained the pretense that Rattle was still alive, sending text messages from Rattle's phone and telling friends that Rattle was unwell. O'Neill then set fire to the home, attempting to stage the fire as an accident involving candles. He confessed to the killing after police identified inconsistencies in his account of events.
O'Neill pleaded guilty to one count of murder and one count of arson. During sentencing proceedings, a treating psychologist diagnosed O'Neill with "dependent personality disorder with prominent features of narcissistic personality disorder." Defence counsel argued this diagnosis should be treated as a mitigating factor, and the prosecution did not contest this position. O'Neill was sentenced to 18 years in prison with a non-parole period of 13 years.
Rattle's estate, valued at $1 million, had named O'Neill as beneficiary in his will. However, the court deemed O'Neill ineligible to benefit from the estate given his conviction for Rattle's murder, and the estate was instead given to Rattle's parents.
The case was later the subject of a book, Smoke and Mirrors, by Robin Bowles. Rattle's home was separately profiled in the book Stuart Rattle's Musk Farm, which included a foreword by Paul Bangay. A tribute to Rattle also appeared in Vogue Australia.
Stuart Charles Rattle is born.
Rattle and Michael Anthony O'Neill meet in the 1990s while O'Neill works as a waiter at an Italian bistro.
O'Neill strikes Rattle with a frying pan and strangles him with a dog leash following an argument at their South Yarra home.
Court proceedings regarding O'Neill's account of the murder are reported in contemporaneous press coverage.
Coroners Court of Victoria publishes findings related to the case.
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From the record
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UNSOLVEDListenWalsh Street, South Yarra, Melbourne · 1980s
Two young Victoria Police constables, Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre, were ambushed and killed while investigating an abandoned car on Walsh Street, South Yarra, in the early hours of 12 October 1988. Four men charged with their murders were later acquitted; the case remains formally unresolved.
Credit: BidgeeCC BY-SA 3.0SourceUNSOLVEDListenAcland Street, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia · 1980s
Louise Faulkner and her two-year-old daughter Charmian vanished from St Kilda, Victoria, in April 1980 after being seen getting into a white ute with an older man. A 2008 coronial inquest ruled they were victims of foul play, but no one has been charged and their bodies have never been found.
Credit: Victoria. Surveyor-General.Public domainSourceOVERTURNEDListenGun Alley (site now beneath 80 Collins St), Melbourne · 1920s
In 1921 Melbourne, 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke was raped and murdered after running an errand near the Eastern Arcade. Colin Campbell Ross was convicted and executed in 1922, but later scientific re-examination of key evidence disproved his guilt, and he received a posthumous pardon in 2008.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenDelta, Fulton County, Ohio · 2016
Sierah Joughin, a 20-year-old Ohio college student, was abducted while bicycling home in Fulton County on July 19, 2016, and found dead three days later. James Dean Worley, a neighbor with a 1990 abduction conviction who was not listed in any offender database, was convicted of her murder in 2018 and sentenced to death, prompting Ohio's Sierah's Law, which created a searchable violent-offender registry.
Credit: Via WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMonon High Bridge Trail, Delphi Historic Trails, Delphi, Indiana · 2010s
Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, were murdered on February 13, 2017, while hiking the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana. The case went unsolved for over five years until Richard M. Allen was arrested in October 2022, convicted in November 2024, and sentenced to 130 years in prison.
Credit: English WikipediaEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenStar City, West Virginia (disappearance site); body found in Wayne Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania · 2012
Sixteen-year-old Skylar Neese disappeared from her Star City, West Virginia home in July 2012 and was found murdered months later. Two of her high school best friends, Rachel Shoaf and Shelia Eddy, pleaded guilty to killing her in a premeditated stabbing attack.
