The Wollongong Murders

Australian True Crime

Meshel Laurie

True Crime

4.6 • 979 Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1998 Wollongong was the scene of two brutal murders, former lord mayor Frank Arkell and much-loved shopkeeper David O’Hearn, committed by 18-year-old Mark Valera.

The violence continued when Valera’s sister, Belinda van Krevel, arranged the killing of their father.

Journalist and author John Suter Linton, who chronicled the events in Bound by Blood (2004), joins us to discuss the case.

You can purchase your copy of Bound by Blood here.

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CREDITS:

Host: Meshel Laurie

Guest: John Suter Linton

Executive Producer/Editor: Matthew Tankard

This episode contains extra content from The ABC, Seven Network and Nine Entertainment Co.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains accounts of child sexual assault.
0:05.0	Listener discretion is advised.
0:08.2	Is there any reason why you did it?
0:10.8	Why I killed David Owen?
0:14.5	I was like, I don't know.
0:17.7	Not really, no.
0:18.8	I mean, I was angry that day, but no particular reason, no.
0:26.8	Several weeks ago, we published an episode about the 1998 murder of former Wollongong
0:32.0	mayor, Frank Arkell. At the time of his death, the man once known as Mr. Wollongong stood accused of being a member of a pedophile ring.
0:41.3	He was awaiting a court date when he was brutally murdered by 19-year-old Mark Valera.
0:46.7	It was Valera's second murder in as many weeks.
0:50.2	He confessed to the murders, but he still fronted a judge two years later,
0:53.9	where his defence team offered what they claimed were mitigating circumstances. He confessed to the murders, but he still fronted a judge two years later,
0:58.5	where his defence team offered what they claimed were mitigating circumstances that should be taken into account during sentencing.
1:02.6	Valera, they claimed, had been subjected to many years of sexual abuse
1:06.6	at the hands of his father, Jack Van Crevel.
1:10.4	This accusation set in motion an equally brutal second act.
1:15.7	Author John Souter Linton investigated the story and wrote a book about it called Bound by Blood.
1:21.6	He joins us on Australian True Crime to talk about it.
1:25.4	This is Australian True Crime.
1:27.0	We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which this podcast is created,
1:32.0	the Wurundjeri Woi Warang people of the Kulin Nation.
	...

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