The Murder Of Anita Cobby: Australia's Worst Crime

Major Breakthrough

Two days after the discovery of Anita Cobby's body, the New South Wales government posted a $50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of her killers. The phones ran hot. But all the exhausting follow-up came to nothing. By now police weren't sure that the woman abducted in Newton Road was Anita Cobby. Maybe Anita had caught a taxi and had been murdered by the driver. They checked out every cab driver in the district.

The following Sunday, one week after the murder, a policewoman re-enacted the movements of Anita Cobby on the last night of her life in the hope that it may jog someone's memory. Constable Debbie Wallace wore similar clothes to those worn by Anita on that night and boarded the 9:12 p.m. train to Blacktown. As she walked the length of the train, detectives interviewed the passengers and showed them photos of the murdered woman.

From Blacktown station, Constable Wallace set out on foot for the half-hour walk to the Lynch family home in Sullivan Street. Police followed in an unmarked car. A couple of cars pulled up and offered the long-legged policewoman a lift. But they weren't the killers of Anita Cobby. Again, the police drew a blank.

On Tuesday, 11 February, police had their first major breakthrough when a member of the public rang to say that he represented four citizens who had information about the murder but were too frightened to come forward. The man met with police and told them that a man named John Travers and two other criminals, Mick Murdoch and Les Murphy, had stolen a car a couple of days before the murder and had resprayed it grey. They had taken the mag wheels from the stolen car and replaced them with normal ones.

The informant told the detectives that Travers had a reputation for extreme violence and carried a knife. The citizens were terrified that if the information amounted to nothing, then Travers and his gang would come after them. As it happened, Travers' name had come up several times already. The police had been told that John Travers was capable of murder but they had been unable to locate him.

Local police had wanted to talk with him about a rape at nearby Toongabbie eight months earlier. The victim of the assault had told police that the leader of the pack had a tattoo of a teardrop beneath his left eye, but Travers and his mates had cleared out to Western Australia.

At last police believed that they were on the right track. Very discreetly, they started checking Travers' known haunts. They told no one of the lead for fear that Travers and his gang would get wind of it and disappear. But they needed more information. By this time the state government had doubled the reward to $100,000. With this carrot dangling under his nose, an informant came to light with some addresses where John Travers may be.

In a dawn raid on a house in nearby Wentworthville, police found John Travers and Mick Murdoch in bed together. They admitted that they stole the car but denied any knowledge of the murder of Anita Cobby. Police found a bloodstained sheath knife that belonged to Travers. Asked what the stains were from, Travers said that he had slaughtered a sheep with it.

At the same time as the arrest of Travers and Murdoch, police had picked up Les Murphy in another raid on a house in Doonside, about three kilometers away. On Les Murphy's Holden station wagon were the mag wheels and sheepskin seat covers from the stolen car. Murphy admitted being involved in stealing the car but also denied any involvement in the death of Anita Cobby.