Alan Martin "Marty" FOX & Anneke Nicolette ADRIAANSEN

 

Alan Martin Fox

 


 

 

Anneke Nicolette ADRIAANSEN
   152cm tall, thin build, fair hair, green eyes.  Aged 19 years.
 
Alan Martin FOX
 
  167cm tall, medium build, brown hair, blue eyes.   Aged 21 years

 

CIRCUMSTANCES:

On 11 January 1979, Alan Fox and his fiancee Anneke Adriaansen left Berowra Heights NSW with the intention of hitchhiking to Kempsey and Byron Bay. A woman told police she spoke to the couple at 6 pm on January 12, 1979, sitting at the then bus stop in Jonson Street, Byron Bay opposite the Great Northern Hotel. They intended to travel to Upper Burringbar to purchase some land.
A friend then spoke with Alan and Anneke in the main street of Kempsey on January 15 1979 about the couple hitchhiking back to Byron Bay to finish their holiday. She last saw the couple walking north along the Pacific Highway near Forth Street, Kempsey. This is the last known sighting of Alan and Anneke. At the time of his disappearance, Alan was 167cm tall with a medium build. He had a fair complexion, brown hair and blue eyes.

Reward of $100,000 to solve disappearance of Alan Fox and Anneke Adriaansen

A $100,000 reward is on offer for information on the 1979 disappearance of a couple in northern NSW.

Alan Fox and his girlfriend Anneke Adriaansen were last seen on 15 January, 1979 hitch-hiking from Sydney to the Mid-North Coast.

Alan, who was 21 at the time, and Anneke, who was 17, left Berowra Heights on 11 January, 1979 and hitchhiked to Kempsey and Byron Bay.

It is believed they intended to travel on to Upper Burringbar to buy land, but neither was ever heard from again.

Despite an extensive investigation into their disappearance, they have never been located.

In May 1981, the State Government offered a $50,000 reward for any information leading to their location.

In August 2005, the Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich held an inquest into the couple's disappearance and issued death certificates for both, before handing down an open finding as to the date, time and cause of death.

He also asked that consideration be given to re-initiating rewards for information that helps police find their bodies and arrest those responsible.

The then Minister for Police, Carl Scully, approved a doubling of the reward to $100,000 in the hope that further information may be forthcoming.

Police believe the couple have died in suspicious circumstances.

It is hoped that somebody who was afraid to come forward with information at the time may now feel they can help police with this matter.

Do you have information that can help police with this case?

Any information you have about this is worth giving to police, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

You can provide information to police via any of the methods below:

Any information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Your help may give police the clue they need to close this case and provide some comfort for the families of victims.

How to claim your reward

  1. Contact Crime Stoppers or your local Police Station.
  2. Identify yourself and indicate you have information about a crime and that you wish to claim a reward.
  3. You will then be put in contact with a police officer involved in the investigation of that case.

 

 


 

 

Coroner declares missing couples dead after 27 years
By Leonie Lamont - SMH
August 4, 2005


The NSW Police Commissioner will be asked to post a reward for information about four young people missing since the late 1970s, after a coroner's inquest determined all four were dead.

Some 27 years after the August 1978 disappearance of Berowra schoolgirl Michelle Pope, 18, and her boyfriend, Stephen Lapthorne, 21, from the northern Sydney area, and the January 1979 disappearance of Alan Fox, 21, and his 19-year-old fiancee, Anneke Adriaansen, from near Kempsey, the coroner's findings yesterday will allow death certificates to be issued.

Sergeant Dennis Ellis, in charge of the coronial investigation into the Fox and Adriaansen disappearance, said police were now investigating a jailed triple murderer who had been living on the North Coast at the time and had been suspected of committing a series of violent attacks on young women of a similar appearance to Miss Adriaansen.

"I have contacted the homicide squad in relation to this suspect and [also] Ivan Milat … it was ascertained Milat could have also been around the coast of northern NSW at the time," he said.

At the inquest, the families of the missing asked questions about gaps in the police records from the time, and Sergeant Ellis said the documentation of the earlier investigation was "scant".

Miss Adriaansen and Mr Fox had been hitchhiking up the coast, looking to buy land near Murwillumbah, when they disappeared.

Yesterday, the NSW deputy state coroner, Carl Milovanovich, delivered a formal finding that stated they had met with foul play or had been abducted, with their last confirmed sighting in Kempsey in the early evening of January 15, 1979.

Detective Inspector Michael Banfield said the last sighting of the other couple was when Mr Lapthorne set out in his Bedford van to drive Miss Pope the 20-kilometre journey home at about 10.15pm on August 28.

He said despite aerial and diving searches around the bush and waterways, no trace had been found, adding "nothing suggests Milat was involved, but there's nothing to eliminate him either".

Mr Milovanovich agreed with the police assessment of misadventure. "They are highly likely to have met with some misadventure: the car could have left the road and submerged itself or they have been unfortunate victims of foul play - homicide or possibly abduction," he said.

Missing couples: reward doubled
May 28, 2006 - 9:56AM - SMH



The NSW government has doubled the reward for information about two Sydney couples who disappeared 27 years ago.

Alan Fox, 21, and Anneke Adriaansen, 20, left Berowra Waters, just north of Sydney, in January 1979, intending to hitch-hike to northern NSW, and were last seen in Kempsey.

Michelle Pope, 20, and Stephen Lapthorne, 21, disappeared in August 1978, after setting out by car from West Pymble to Berowra.

NSW Police Minister Carl Scully today offered $100,000 for information about the couples, saying it was time their families were able to close the book.

"It has been almost thirty years since these young couples disappeared. Their families deserve to have this traumatic matter resolved," he said in a statement.

"I appeal to anybody who has information about their disappearance to come forward and help police end these perplexing mysteries."

NSW Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich issued death certificates for both the couples in August last year and recommended rewards be re-initiated for information that might help find their bodies.

$100,000 reward over 'cold cases'
By Alex Mitchell - SMH
May 28, 2006


The disappearances of two separate couples more than 25 years ago in circumstances of suspected foul play have resurfaced as "cold cases" worthy of the top-rating television series.

In the incidents in 1978 and 1979, the couples mysteriously vanished, leaving their families and friends distressed and detectives completely baffled.

Now Police Minister Carl Scully has doubled the reward to $100,000 for any information about their disappearance and the arrest of those responsible.

 COLD CASE ONE Michelle Pope, 18, and Stephen Lapthorne, 21, were last seen travelling on August 25, 1978, from his West Pymble home to her Berowra home.

The couple vanished and Lapthorne's lime green Bedford van has never been located.

 COLD CASE TWO Allan Fox, 19, and his girlfriend Anneke Adriaansen, 17, left Berowra Heights on January 11, 1979, to hitchhike to Kempsey and Byron Bay.

They were last seen on January 12, but then vanished and have never been seen again.

Referring to the Pope-Lapthorne case, Mr Scully said: "Detectives initially suspected they were murdered and their bodies buried in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, but they have also not ruled out death by misadventure.

"All leads received since their disappearance were followed up without success."

In August last year, Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich held an inquest into the couple's disappearance and issued death certificates for both, before handing down an open finding as to the date, time and cause of death.

Accepting the coroner's call for the reward to be increased, Mr Scully said: "The families of Michelle and Stephen deserve to have this traumatic matter resolved."

Mr Scully said Fox and Adriaansen were travelling north to Upper Burringbar, south of Murwillumbah, to buy land, but neither was ever heard from again.

"Mr Milovanovich has asked that consideration be given to re-initiating rewards for information that helps police find their bodies and arrest those responsible," Mr Scully said.

"Accordingly, I have approved a doubling of the reward to $100,000 in the hope that further information may be forthcoming."

Mr Scully said police believed the couple died in suspicious circumstances, adding: "It has been almost 27 years since this young couple disappeared.

"Perhaps somebody who was afraid to come forward with information at the time may now feel they can help police.

"I appeal to anybody who has any information that could help police to come forward and give the families the closure they need."

 Fox's mother, Enid, was delighted when told about the reward. "It's taken 27 years, which is ridiculous, but I think it's a very good idea," Mrs Fox told The Sun-Herald.

"You just don't know, but hopefully it might make somebody think maybe they can offer some information. Obviously, somebody does know something."


 

Bones in sand dunes reveal a murder mystery

By Kara Lawrence

November 27, 2007 01:00am

Article from: The Daily Telegraph
 

IT is a murder mystery buried beneath tonnes of sand for more than three decades.

But the sands of time may soon give up their grisly secret with revelations human bones found at the site belong to a man and a woman.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal forensic tests carried out on the bones, dug up during construction of the new desalination plant in Kurnell - near Botany Bay in Sydney's south - show they are the remains of two people who died less than 50 years ago.

And it is understood that rubbish found with some of the bones date them to more recent times - from the 1970s onwards.

This has raised speculation they may belong to one of a number of couples who vanished from New South Wales in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Carbon dating tests on the bones have been conducted in New Zealand and the bones are being sent to the US for extraction of DNA.

There is still no clue as to whether the pair were murdered, died accidentally, or even died together.

However, the dating of the bones has ruled out the prospect they were ancient Aboriginal bones, as was originally suspected due to their location at Kurnell.

The discovery of the bones was first made in early October when workers digging in sand dunes unearthed a shin bone. The following week, 300m away, ribs and other, smaller bones were discovered nearby in sandy scrubland off Sir Joseph Banks Drive.

This was followed by the unearthing of a pelvis and foot bones - still wearing a sock - nearby.

A forensic pathologist and an anthropologist from the University of Sydney were called to the scene to examine the bones and police conducted excavation of the area and sent in cadaver dogs.

The Daily Telegraph understands that police are skeptical the remains could be victims of jailed underworld figure Neddy Smith, whose alleged dumping ground was Botany.

It is understood that while police have conducted an initial check of missing persons records, the search criteria is seen as too wide.

However, there are three high-profile cases of missing couples dating back 30 years that remain unsolved.

Michelle Pope, 18, and her boyfriend Stephen Lapthorne, 21, went missing in August 1978 after leaving his north-west Sydney home in a green van.

Alan Fox, 21, and his fiancee Anneke Adriaansen, 19, have been formally declared dead by a coroner after disappearing during a trip to Byron Bay in January 1979.

Joanne Lacey and Leslie Toshack, both 20, were reported missing to police in early 1981 and had planned to hitchhike up the coast.

The Kurnell bones will be tested in the US for mitochondrial DNA - a form of DNA which lasts longer than nuclear DNA in bones and runs in the maternal line.

In the past two years, a DNA testing program has led to relatives of 84 people who had gone missing as far back as the 1960s, supplying DNA. This DNA is for comparison to almost 150 sets of unidentified remains.

Police said that so far this program had resulted in six missing people being matched to remains.

The Kurnell site is also a short distance from the still-unsolved Wanda Beach murders.

Best friends Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, both aged 15, went missing from Cronulla's Wanda Beach in January 1965 and their bodies were found in the sand the following day.

 

Bones could be of couple last seen in Byron Bay

December 6, 2007 - 9:00AM

 

By Gary Chigwidden Byron Times

At 6 pm on January 12, 1979, Alan Fox and his fiancee, Anneke Adriaansen were seen sitting at the then bus stop in Jonson Street, Byron Bay opposite the Great Northern Hotel.

They were quieter times in the Bay then and the couple would have been easily noticed.

It was the last positive sighting of the couple. They were never seen again.

Despite their bodies never being found, they were declared dead in August 2005 by NSW Coroner Carl Milovanovich.

However, the discovery of human bones at Kurnell in Sydney's south last week may, at long last, shed some light on the couple's mysterious disappearance.

There is some conjecture that the bones are those of one of a number of couples who disappeared in the late 1970s or early 1980s, including Alan Fox and Anneke Adriaansen.

But forensic testing on the bones is continuing and police say it is far too early to speculate at all on the identity of the remains.

On that fateful day back in 1979, Alan, 21 and his fiancee, 19, were on their way to Burringbar to look at some land to buy.

They didn't make it and there is not one clue as to their fate. Nothing.

For many years after their disappearance, Alan's father, Harry, would make an annual pilgrimage from Sydney to Byron Bay to unearth anything that would lead to unravelling the mystery.

While it was still there, he made a point of sitting at the Jonson Street bus stop at 6 pm on January 12 each year and would display photographs of the couple hoping they would jog someone's memory.

They didn't.

As the then Byron Bay reporter for The Northern Star, I last spoke to Harry back in 1992 on his thirteenth trip to the town.

That year, he didn't make it on January 12. But when I spoke to him two months later when he came to Byron Bay, he was fairly convinced his son and fianc?e were dead, possibly victims of foul play.

He set up displays at both Byron Bay and Mullumbimby featuring photographs of the couple and other missing people and information about their disappearances.

His hope was that 'missing' people would come forward and give him a message to pass on to their families.

Harry told me the worst thing for families of missing children was "not knowing not being able to resolve anything".

His own pain was obvious and he said it was the fact of not knowing that destroyed most parents.

Every year, 30,000 people across Australia are reported missing.

Happily, most of those people are located.

But for the families of those who aren't found, the anguish never ends.

I don't know whether Harry Fox is still alive, but if he is, the discovery at Kurnell may eventually ease some of his pain.

 

 

 

Killer's boneyard in Kurnell dunes - hitman may be one of three skeletons

AT least three sets of human bones have been uncovered in the sand dunes at Kurnell in what police believe may be the graveyard for Sydney's underworld killers.

Speculation has raced through police and criminal circles that one of the bodies - believed to be two males and a female - could be that of missing hitman Christopher Dale Flannery.

Until now police believed the bones, found during the building of the desalination plant in Sydney's south, were from two people.

But recent DNA results have revealed a third victim.

"Three bodies makes you think it is a dumping ground," a detective said. "The bones are relatively recent."

Carbon dating and rubbish with the remains indicate that they are from no earlier than the 1970s.

Police sent the bones to America for mitochondrial DNA extraction only to learn tests revealed DNA from three people, not two.

Further tests are expected to be carried out on more bones, raising the possibility of even more bodies.

"There are definitely the remains of three different individuals but there could be more," the detective said.

Other theories about where the bones might have come from include missing prostitute and informant Lynn Woodward, playboy and small-time drug dealer Mark Johnston, or a previously unknown serial killer.

The detective said: "Some people have mentioned Flannery's name, but who knows."

Known as Mr Rent-a-Kill, Flannery vanished in 1985. Theories about who killed him range from Arthur "Neddy" Smith to members of the police.

Former homicide detective Mick McGann said: "Neddy definitely used the area around Foreshore Drive for disposing of bodies in the 1980s.

"Kurnell is across the bay, similar terrain and deserted, so it's not implausible. The third runway was getting filled up, they were probably looking for somewhere else."

Police believe a jawbone unearthed may have belonged to Woodward, who disappeared in the 1980s after making accusations against police in the shooting of Warren Lanfranchi by Roger Rogerson.

"The tests were inconclusive," the detective said.

Another name mentioned is Johnston, who disappeared in August 1986 after a meeting with his solicitor Val Bellamy at Dover Heights.

His abandoned car was found with traces of cocaine at Maroubra. Many suspect Smith of killing him.

Smith is serving two life sentences for murdering tow truck driver Ronnie Flavell and small-time crook Harvey Jones.

Police do not have DNA from Flannery and would have to get a sample from a known relative.

A shin bone was first uncovered by workers in early October, 2007. A week later, 300m away, ribs and other, smaller bones were discovered in sandy scrubland off Sir Joseph Banks Drive. Further searching unearthed a pelvis and foot bones. Some of the feet bones were found in a sock.

Vanished without a trace - have you seen these missing people?

IT'S your mother, child, friend. One day they're there, the next, gone. The disappearances of 11 Australians and why their families never give up hope.

Matt Young and CANDACE SUTTON
NewsComAu
 

Alan "Marty" Fox, 21, and Anneke Adriaansen, 19 Last seen: 1979

Alan Fox, 21, and Anneke Adriaansen, 19, were high school sweet hearts who were planning their wedding and the life they would have thereafter. It was January, 1979, and the pair had applied for a bank loan to buy a property left on the mid-North Coast of NSW where they planned to build a house. They set out from Berowra Heights in Sydney's north to hitchhike to Byron Bay. The last confirmed sighting of the couple was in the town of Kempsey in the early evening of January 15, 1979. Police made extensive searches along hundreds of bushland trails from Kempsey to Byron Bay, but found no trace. 

A father’s pain

Posted on 

THE disappearance of Belgian backpacker, Theo Hayez, has eerie similarities to the disappearance in 1979 of two young people, Alan Fox and his fiancé, Anneke Adriaansen.

While I wasn’t living at Byron Bay then, I wrote follow-up stories about the on-going search for the couple by Alan’s father, Harry.

It is one of the saddest stories I covered in my time as a reporter for the Northern Star and the Byron Shire News.

And it is one I can never forget.

This is the story I wrote for the Northern Star and which was published on February 21, 1992.

THERE is pain in Harry Fox’s voice – the pain of a father whose son one day just disappeared off the face of the Earth without trace.

Even on the telephone the hurt is obvious. The hurt of not knowing.

There is not one clue – nothing – to indicate the fate of his son, Alan, and Alan’s fiancé, Anneke Adriaansen, who disappeared on January 12, 1979.

The two were last positively sighted at 6pm on that day, sitting at a bus stop opposite the Great Northern Hotel in Jonson Street, Byron Bay.

They were heading off to Burringbar to look at some land.

Thirteen years later, Harry Fox, while never giving up hope, believes his son and fiancé are dead.

Even so, he and his wife Enid still will follow up any lead.

On the strength of a telephone call they will jump into their car and head up the coast from their Sydney home.

They have made many such trips to the Far North Coast over the past 13 years with Mr Fox making a point of sitting at that Byron Bay bus stop at 6pm on January 12.

This year they didn’t make it.

Early in January he was in Kempsey where the pair was positively on the morning of January 12, 1979.

From there he was going to travel to Byron Bay, but the experience became a ‘bit heavy’ for him and he returned to Sydney.

Next week he will be on the Far North Coast once again to try to jog memories and also to offer comfort to parents in similar positions.

On Thursday he will spend all day at the Mullumbimby Neighbourhood Centre and on Friday he will be at Byron Bay, probably in Railway Park.

As well as offering support to other parents, Mr Fox also would like any young people who have run away from home, or lost contact with their families, to come to speak to him.

“They might want to give me a little message for their families to say that they are safe and well,” he said.

While at Byron Bay, Mr Fox again will go to the bus stop in Jonson Street and, as in the past, the experience will be a traumatic one.

“It’s emotional when I go to the bus stop,” he said.

“You wonder where they went to. One has to hope though.

“But because of the circumstances and being rational, I believe them to be dead.

“I just hope they were irrational. That hope keeps bounding forward.”

A WEEK later, I met Harry at Mullumbimby where he told me that if Alan and Anneke were victims of foul play, then someone must know what happened to them.

He appealed to that ‘someone’ to come forward and contact him.

The worst thing for families of missing children, he said, was not knowing, not being able to resolve anything.

“It just doesn’t go away,” he said.

“You run through all sorts of feelings – pain, frustration, guilt.

“You feel no one is doing anything for you: the police are doing nothing.

“But it’s the fact of not knowing that destroys most parents.”

 

AS far as I can recall, I had no further contact with Harry and in the intervening years lost his contact details.

He may well have since gone to his grave still not knowing what happened to his son and girlfriend.