Monday 1 August 2022 07:06 AM Did serial killer strike again? Suspect identified in cold case death of sex ... trends now
A tip-off to police that a serial killer could have been responsible for the cold case murder of a sex worker whose body was found in an abandoned mine shaft was largely ignored by detectives.
Adele Bailey's body was found by two men exploring the 'Jack of Clubs' mineshaft in Bonnie Doone, Victoria, in 1995 after she disappeared 17 years earlier.
She had worked as a prostitute in St Kilda where she met now 68-year-old Bandali 'Ben' Debs who years later would be jailed for the murders of two other sex workers and two Victoria Police officers who unwittingly pulled him over.
Detectives tasked with the investigation under Operation Kale identified alleged corrupt cop Denis Tanner as a prime suspect who had arrested Ms Bailey in a sex worker crackdown a few months prior to her September 1978 disappearance.
Detectives visiting the mineshaft in 1995 noted it was located near to a property owned by the Tanner family and where Mr Tanner's sister-in-law was found dead in suspected foul play in 1984.
The boyd of Adele Bailey (pictured) was found in an abandoned Victorian mine shaft by two men exploring in 1995 - 17 years after she went missing
No arrests have been made over either woman's death, with a coroner finding in 1999 that Operation Kale's evidence could not establish a link between Mr Tanner and Ms Bailey's killing.
But so-called 'information reports' uncovered by The Herald Sun have now revealed a subsequent investigation into the two deaths, dubbed Operation Trencher, found that a tip-off implicating Debs in Ms Bailey's death was not followed up on.
A friend of Ms Bailey's, who is anonymous but the newspaper has called Marion King, phoned police on September 6 and 7 in 1995 after the body was found.
She said that she had briefly lived with Ms Bailey and that they both knew a man called 'Joe', but who she now realised was Debs.
'Adele may have been involved in a relationship with a person called 'Joe' who she believed to be Bendalli Michael Debb (sic) or similar, then aged in his mid-20s (sic),' a note in Operation Kale's files read.
A young Bandali Debs, who police and the courts have no doubt murdered Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller
Operation Trencher detectives tracked down Ms King and interviewed her.
She revealed she had met 'Joe' in the late seventies after she moved from New Zealand and lived with Ms Bailey in the Melbourne suburb of Elwood.
'I think she had a physical relationship with Joe because of the way they acted together, but I don't know for sure,' she told detectives, reports the newspaper.
Ms King claimed he was 'getting about a bit' and was also seeing a 'drag queen' called Marsha and another trans woman known as Jedda.
She told detectives that when she moved from Elwood and rented an apartment by herself in Prahran, that Debs moved in uninvited.
While there, she alleged to detectives he had raped her one night
