Leonard John Fraser

Grim Discovery

But while police believed that Fraser had murdered all four women, without their bodies or a confession they couldn't pin a thing on him. Not until he started talking to his cellmate, that is. "What I have gone through has caused me to kill these people," he allegedly told the cellmate. "All the hate over the years came to the fore and ended with the murder of the people."

When confronted by detectives about the confessions, Fraser shocked them by offering to take them to where the bodies were concealed. In a top secret operation, that could have fallen apart at any time as Fraser said that he "hated the media and did not want any coverage," homicide detectives took him out of prison and flew him on the Premier's private jet to Rockhampton and secretly video and audiotaped him as he led them to the remains of Ms. Leggo and Ms. Turner.

Partial remains of Sylvia Benedetti had already been discovered by surfers in bush land near Sandy Point Beach but Fraser had been unable to lead police to the rest of the remains. But what they found was all the evidence detectives needed to charge Fraser with multiple murders.

Brisbane Supreme Court

At his trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court held in April, 2003, before Mr. Justice Brian Ambrose, Fraser pleaded not guilty to the murders of Natasha Ryan, Julie Turner, Bev Leggo and Sylvia Benedetti.

The jury was told by prosecutor Paul Rutledge that Fraser had boasted to his cellmate that he killed Natasha Ryan by knifing her because she was pregnant by him. He then placed her body in a grave he had dug on a property outside of Rockhampton.