Two metal barrels and maps leaked from a state inquiry could hold the answers to the abduction and suspected murders of two young girls more than 50 years ago.
Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirste Gordon, four, were last seen alive at 3.45pm on August 25, 1973, when they walked to the toilets together during a football game at Adelaide Oval, South Australia.
Thirteen-year-old Anthony Kilmartin was selling lollies at the oval, and told police he saw a man carrying a young girl under his right arm and dragging an older girl, who appeared to be trying to rescue the younger one.
He described the kidnapper as a stooped man wearing a brown hat with a wide brim, a grey checked sports coat and brown trousers.
A range of suspects were investigated, including known paedophiles Arthur Stanley Brown, Stanley Arthur Hart and Errol George Radan, all of whom are now dead.
A coronial inquiry in 1979 could not determine what happened to the girls.
Now citizen journalist Bryan Littlely, who has a close relationship with Joanne’s family, claims unearthed evidence not only shows that Hart kidnapped the girls, but that he killed them and concealed their dismembered bodies in two barrels.
Joanne Ratcliffe (pictured) was 11 when she was abducted at Adelaide Oval in 1973
Kirste Gordon (pictured) was 11 when she was abducted at Adelaide Oval in 1973
Pictured: One of the barrels just after it was uncovered in 2009
The barrels were hidden in an abandoned irrigation tunnel near Pekina Reservoir, about 300km north of Adelaide, which were found by following a map drawn by Hart’s grandson, Mark Trevor Marshall.
The maps, obtained by Daily Mail, were uncovered in 2009 and appear to contain graphic details about the treatment of Joanne’s body, but Mr Littlely said police have shown very little interest in the barrels until now.
‘I offered to deliver them to police last year but they said they weren’t interested,’ he said.
A letter from police to Mr Littlely, also obtained by Daily Mail, shows officers have now requested access to the barrels for forensic testing, but Mr Littlely doesn’t trust them to test properly or make the results available.
He also wants assurance that an inquest into the abductions will be reopened.
‘We’ve uncovered a lot of compelling information in this case which absolutely changes the scene from 1979, when it was last heard before a coroner,’ he said.
The new information includes a police statement by Marshall, maps which appears to show where the bodies were killed and dumped, and a hat found at Hart’s shack which matches a description by the witness, Mr Kilmartin.
Pictured: Bryan Littlely in Yatina with Joanne’s sister, Suzie
Pictured: Known paedophile Stanley Hart, who died in 1999 and was a suspect in the Adelaide Oval Abductions
Pictured: The tunnel where the barrels were found, near Pekina Reservoir
Pictured: The tunnel before it was abandoned. It was built as an irrigation tunnel in the 1920s, but it wasn’t constructed correctly
The maps
Mr Littlely claims two maps were drawn by Marshall when he was interviewed from his prison cell by Commissioner Edward ‘Ted’ Picton Mullighan during a 2008 inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in state care.
He said the maps and statements formed part of a tranche of documents from the inquiry that were stolen from state archives in 2009, eventually falling into Mr Littlely’s hands.
Marshall did participate in the state inquiry, along with more than 700 others. Daily Mail has not been able to independently confirm the map was from the inquiry or that it was drawn by Marshall.
Mr Littlely said police initially dismissed the map as fantasy because Marshall, now 57, is a serial child sex offender who was four years old when Joanne and Kirste were taken.
Even though Marshall drew the maps as an adult, the presentation is still child-like and filled with spelling errors.
However, Mr Littlely believes Marshall’s evidence should be taken seriously because one of the maps appears to show where Joanne and Kirste were killed at Hart’s shack, while the other leads directly to the tunnel where the barrels were concealed.
Further, they contain graphic notes naming the girls directly, and appear to detail where the bodies were taken, how they were transported and placed inside the barrels, and abandoned in the tunnel. While difficult to decipher, the tunnel map appears to read: ‘Joanne putted in tunnel … chop up and putted in papa’s roo bags and in tank.’
Pictured: Convicted paedophiel Mark Trevor Marshall, who accused his grandfather Stanley Hart of kidnapping and killing Joanne and Kirste
Pictured: A map, apparently drawn by Mark Trevor Marshall, which shows where the tunnel and bodies were located near Pekina Reservoir
Pictured: A diagram of Stanley Hart’s shack, which Bryan Littlely says was drawn by Marshall and shows where Joanne and Kirste were killed
It then says, ‘I see leg falled out,’ which appears to suggest a leg fell out of the tank.
The tank, according to the map, was ‘rolled over wall to creek’, meaning it was transported down to the water by pushing it off the wall of the reservoir.
According to notes on the map, Hart appears to have collected the tank from the reservoir once it floated to an ‘underground tunnel’, labelled and marked on the map with a large ‘X’.
The remnants of a rain tank were also found with the barrels at the tunnel site in 2009.
Along with a diagram of the reservoir and the tunnel, the map also includes key landmarks from the area at the time, including reeds in the water, walking tracks, a water pump, cliffs and dirt walls, a tower where the tunnel ended, and a picnic area.
It contains references to ‘dad secret place’ and ‘magic trees’, which was a drug plantation later seized by police, labelled on the map as ‘police siege’, according to Mr Littlely.
A second map is a diagram of Hart’s shack and clearly points to locations where Joanne and Kirste are claimed to have been killed, marked with small stick figures.
A stick figure can be seen in a room labelled ‘papa’s jail’, which says ‘the Kristy girl killed’.
Pictured: A map showing Adelaide, where the girls were abducted, in relation to Yatina and Pekina Reservoir
Pictured: The barrels at a property, after being removed from the tunnel
Pictured: A rain water tank which may have been used to transport Joanne and Kirste’s bodies to the tunnel. Mr Littlely says a distinct rust pattern could show body fluid leaching
Other disturbing details include ‘papa’s sexing room’ and ‘papa mostest second sexing place’, with an arrow pointing to the garage.
From the diagram, Joanne appears to have been murdered outside the garage.
Mr Littlely said Marshall’s statement to the inquiry backs up the claims on the map, and places him as a witness to the abductions and the suspected killings of the girls.
Regarding Marshall’s youth at the time, Mr Littlely said witnessing the dismemberment of two children – one of whom was his age – would likely have been traumatic enough for him to recall even decades later.
He conceded the recollections of a four-year-old were probably imperfect, but said: ‘At the end of the day, those barrels were exactly where Marshall said they would be, there’s no way around it.’
The hat
The police witness to the abductions, Anthony Kilmartin, described the kidnapper as wearing a brown hat with a wide brim.
In December 2008, police raided Hart’s shack in Yatina, about 20km south of Pekina Reservoir.
Pictured: A police sketch of the man who abducted Joanne and Kirste, based on a description by witness Anthony Kilmartin
Pictured: Stanley Hart’s hat sitting on a table during a police search of his shack in 2008
Pictured: Anthony Kilmartin, who saw the girls get abducted when he was 13 in 1973
Mr Littlely said a hat matching the description was sitting on a table inside the shack, but police didn’t retrieve it.
Police were eventually given the hat by citizen detectives, which was later given to Mr Littlely by cops who determined Hart was no longer a suspect.
Mr Littlely met Mr Kilmartin in 2023, who now drives trucks.
When Mr Littley took the hat out of his bag, he said Mr Kilmartin ‘went ghost white and burst into tears’.
‘He said it was the same hat.’
The barrels
Two metal barrels were found inside the tunnel near Pekina Reservoir in various states of decay in 2009.
Both barrels were open when they were uncovered, filled with sand and debris, and with no obvious human remains inside.
Police tested samples of both barrels, but findings were inconclusive.
Independent testing organised by Mr Littlely revealed traces of blood without haemoglobin, which is present in all blood samples from humans and animals.
He believes the bodies were broken down with acid, which would destroy haemoglobin.
Mr Littlely’s independent tests also revealed the presence of acid, though police said their testing showed no acid was present.
He is now looking to test the full contents of the barrels for bone fragments, along with any residue left on the metal.
A rainwater tank from the site will also be tested.
According to the map, the tank was used to transport Joanne’s body to the tunnel.
The tank has a distinctive rust pattern on the inside, which Mr Littley said could be consistent with the leaching of body fluids.
Further independent testing will be done on the contents of the barrels in April.
SA Police would not comment on Mr Littlely’s claims.
‘The investigation into the disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon remains an open investigation,’ a spokesperson said.
‘No further comment will be made at this time.’
