Raymond Edmunds

Raymond Edmunds (aka Donvale Rapist, Mr. Stinky) born at Queen Victoria Hospital on Swanston Street Melbourne Sunday 12 March 1944 and adopted by Mavis & Harold Edmunds then residing at Mudgegonga near Myrtleford in north-east Victoria. Harold Edmunds at the time of the adoption was in his forties and is descended from one of the earliest settlers in the Myrtleford district. His adoptive mother Mavis died of cancer by 1972

Ray now aged 62 years is a multiple rapist and double murderer who was active in Victoria, Australia from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.

His offensive body odour was caused by a mixture of milk, manure and chemicals from his work as a share-cropping farmer on dairy properties.

Years later it led a sub-editor from Melbourne's Sunday Press newspaper to give him his infamous nickname Mr Stinky when he found it filled perfectly the area of the newspaper awaiting printing for the next day.

He is responsible for the 1966 double murder and rape of Shepparton Garry Charles Heywood (18) a panel-beater & Abina Margaret Madill (16) raped and murdered Thursday 10 Feb 1966 at Shepparton, Victoria. He was shot through the head with a .22 Mossberg self-loading rifle and she was raped then bludgeoned to death.

Garry Charles Heywood born 19 August 1947; Garry’s grandfather was one of the first coach-work experts in Melbourne who made the switch from horse-drawn vehicles to motor cars - Abina Madill born 17 Sep 1949. The two met up when they were out on the town to see a band play at the local Civic Centre.

Raymond is a violent man who had raped and beaten his first wife and sexually abused his three-year old daughter, Edmunds was responsible for a series of rapes in the 1970's and early 80's that led the police to dub the then unknown offender "The Donvale Rapist". Edmunds was also a suspect in the 1976 disappearance and presumed murder of Beaumaris 8-year old Eloise Worledge.

The police finally caught up with him when a young fingerprint expert, Sergeant Andrew Wall, matched two fingerprints found on the top of the British racing-green coloured FJ Holden owned by victim, Garry Heywood during the era when fingerprints were matched manually, computerisation had not yet been invented

These two fingerprints atop the FJ Holden was evidence that had not previously been publicised but was kept quiet so the perpetrator would not panic or become more adept at hiding his prints and then finally could be connected the Shepparton murders with one fingerprint found at the "Donvale Rapist" crime scenes.

Edmunds was apprehended for an unconnected offence on Saturday 16 March 1985 on a charge of indecent exposure while parked in his station-wagon on a main street in Albury, New South Wales. Under New South Wales law, every offender must be fingerprinted and both sets of fingerprints were matched with the Shepparton murders. Edmunds is now serving two life imprisonments for the murder and a total of 30 years for 5 proven rapes in Greensborough and Donvale many years later.

The case of Edmunds has been used to advocate national biometric databases for Australia, as he was only caught by fingerprint evidence nineteen years after the fact and only when it was noticed that the fingers used in Albury were matched to fingerprints from other crime scenes, a composite of 5 major crimes led to the identification.

It is believed that he committed more murders and more than 32 other rapes, since he will not confess to more crimes, a move is afoot to have his DNA taken to match up to other unsolved crimes.

References

• Victim Pleads To Mr Stinky ... Admit Your Evil Deeds (Geoff Wilkinson, Herald-Sun, 27 July 1998)
• VicLAS (PDF) (Annie Darcy, This Is The Drum, September 1997, Northern Territory Police, Fire and Ambulance Services)
• DNA sampling act (Northern Territory legislative assembly)
• Australian (Public) Paedophile/Sex Offender Registry Raymond Edmunds-(Mr STINKY)