Australia: report reveals wealthy couple killed by son took hours to die
Patty
By Neil Mitchell
The Sunday Mail
05dec02
THE victims of Melbourne's notorious society murders may have lived
for hours face down in a garden bed after being bashed by Matthew
Wales.
An autopsy report has shown that Margaret Wales-King may still have
been conscious after Matthew attacked her with a piece of wood and
dragged her to the garden of his Armadale unit.
There is also evidence that the couple may have been strangled, though
Matthew denies choking them.
It now seems possible that Mrs Wales-King and Mr King may have lain
struggling for life in the mulch of the garden bed and died from
asphyxiation because they were placed face down.
The family of the dead couple have been told that Mrs Wales-King may
have lived for as long as six hours after the attack.
The report means that the Wales-King couple may have survived if
Matthew's wife, Maritza, had called police after her husband told her
he had killed them and left to dump their car in Middle Park.
Details of the couple's deaths are still confused and their family is
anxious for answers.
Matthew, 34, pleaded guilty to the murders, but his statement does not
explain much of what has been uncovered by pathologists.
Maritza, 39, pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to pervert the
course of justice by making a false statement to cover up her
husband's crime. The original charge of being an accessory after the
fact of the murders was withdrawn.
The couple are due in court on December 18 for sentencing.
Family members are concerned that many of the questions surrounding
the deaths will never be answered because both have pleaded guilty.
They are deeply upset by the news that Mrs Wales-King, 68, and Mr
King, 70, may have been left to die in the garden bed when their lives
could have been saved.
Damien Honan, husband of Mrs Wales-King's daughter Sally, yesterday
issued a statement on behalf of the family in response to the autopsy
report.
"The family recently became aware of this distressing new
development," the statement said.
"There are other matters which we are also now aware of that we are
seeking answers and explanations to.
"Our great hope is that these matters can be resolved quickly and that
we can take one step forward in our lives, no matter how short that
step is."
The autopsy on the couple was carried out by Dr Malcolm John Dodd, a
forensic pathologist.
Commenting on the cause of death for Mrs Wales-King, he said her head
injuries would be "insufficient to cause death" but would lead to
"reduced" consciousness.
He said other medical evidence strongly suggested "that the deceased
did not die immediately after the alleged assault".
His report further suggests the possibility of Mrs Wales-King and Mr
King also being strangled. "In view of the bruising around the neck,
manual neck compression cannot be excluded entirely," he said of Mrs
Wales-King.
Another concern to the family is that Matthew claimed to have fed his
mother and stepfather a drug cocktail before murdering them.
Dr Dodd found evidence of the blood pressure drug Atenolol in Mrs
Wales-King but not Mr King.
In his interview with police, Matthew Wales admitted to drugging and
bashing them with a block of wood but denied strangling them:
POLICE question: As it has been described to me that both Margaret and
Paul were strangled in a manner - I'm just showing to you - were
strangled in a manner like this. Would you care to comment on that?
MATTHEW Wales: It's not true. I'm saying I hit them on the back of the
neck with a block of wood. I didn't, I didn't torture them at all.
The unanswered questions about the evidence of strangulation are only
part of what the family of the dead couple want answered.
They want to know why Maritza Wales does not face a further charge,
particularly if there is a possibility that, if she had acted quickly
when told of the attack, the couple may have been helped.
From the pathologist's evidence, the most likely cause of death was
not the blows from the wood but asphyxiation as they lay in the garden
bed.
Dr Dodd said of both Mrs Wales-King and Mr King:
"Information given to me by the informant suggests that the body may
have been placed in a face down position in soft soil for a time
immediately after the assault.
"It is entirely possible that the death may have occurred from
positional asphyxia (occlusion of the nasal and oral airways) during
deep unconsciousness."
NEIL Mitchell will interview Wales-King family members on 3AW at
8.30am today.
=========================================
Maritza's role queried
By TANYA GILES and MARK BUTTLER
The Herald Sun
06dec02
PRESSURE is building on the wife of Matthew Wales after revelations
his parents may have lived for hours, lying face down in a garden bed,
after he drugged and bashed them.
The Herald Sun revealed yesterday that autopsy reports show Margaret
Wales-King and Paul King may have struggled for life in the mulch
before dying of asphyxiation.
They also show Mrs Wales-King, 68, may have been conscious after her
son dragged her into the garden.
It means the elderly couple may have survived if Matthew Wales' wife,
Maritza, had called emergency services for help after her husband told
her he had killed them and left the house to dump their car.
Mrs Wales, 39, unlocked her front door and peered through a crack when
approached yesterday by the Herald Sun.
"I have no comment to make. You will have to speak to (lawyer) Paul
Galbally".
Mrs Wales has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by
making a false statement to cover up her husband's crime. Mr Wales,
34, has pleaded guilty to murdering his mother and stepfather at his
home on April 4.
The family of Mrs Wales-King and Paul King, 70, want to know why Mrs
Wales does not face a further charge, if there is a possibility that,
if she had acted quickly, the couple may have been helped.
Experts said it would be difficult to charge Mrs Wales with murder
because she would have had to have known the couple were alive.
Family friends told yesterday how Matthew's personality changed when
he met Maritza and how his relationship with the couple had
deteriorated.
"He had a wonderful relationship with his mother. He was a kind,
loving boy," one woman, Patricia, said on 3AW.
"He changed once he met Maritza. He became a very nervous type,
desperate to please her. He loved her deeply ..."
Another family friend said Mrs Wales had never had anything nice to
say about the family.
The Melbourne Magis trates' Court has been told Matthew Wales laced
the couple's food before bashing them as they left his house.
Mr Wales and his wife, who is on bail, have been ordered to appear in
the Supreme Court on December 18.
Patty
>
> THE victims of Melbourne's notorious society murders may have lived
> for hours face down in a garden bed after being bashed by Matthew
> Wales.
This is really nasty. Suffocating in the garden mulch. Sheesh. I haven't
been following this case Patty. Was the motive money or just plain hate?
Michael <- looking around the flower beds at the nice, deep mulch
A few of us were following this case earlier this year. Here's another article
on the case, to be followed with another one. Son says he's hated his mother
since he was a kid.
Wales pleads guilty over murders
October 18 2002
By Selma Milovanovic
The Age (Melbourne Australia)
Matthew Robert Wales told police he had wanted to kill his "manipulative" millionaire
mother since he was a child.
At 34, the youngest of Margaret Wales-King's five children yesterday pleaded guilty to
murdering her and her husband, Paul King.
In a dramatic appearance at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, Matthew Wales' wife, Maritza
Elizabeth Wales, 39, pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice, while
Matthew Wales' distraught siblings gestured and swore at the couple.
The pleas ended a six-month roller-coaster of police investigations, media scrutiny and a
family's search for answers that began when the wealthy Armadale couple went missing and
were found buried in a shallow grave near Marysville, north-east of Melbourne, on April
29.
Their last meal, a drug-laced dinner of vegetable soup and risotto, was prepared on April
4 by Matthew Wales, who then bashed them with wooden planks and dumped their bodies.
As the couple entered their pleas yesterday, Wales' brother Damian waved his finger at the
accused and mouthed obscenities before being calmed by family members, who took up an
entire row of seats.
As Maritza Wales' bail conditions were read out, Matthew Wales' sister Prudence Reed
whispered: "You f--- rot in hell, whore", while Damian Wales mouthed "f--- bitch".
Twenty minutes later, after a thin Matthew Wales was led away to the cells, Ms Reed
deliberately bumped into Maritza Wales and muttered words at her as she was led away by a
lawyer.
A distraught Damian Wales then kicked the door of the room where his sister-in-law was
sitting before family members ushered him away.
Outside court, Damian Wales said the family was relieved not to be facing a lengthy trial.
"It's been a very difficult period," he said. "This is one step in the right direction to
getting the whole thing finished. We just want to move on."
During a police interview, Matthew Wales said he did not kill his mother to get money.
"It's the way she used her - her power of money," he said. He told police he killed his
stepfather because he blamed him for his parents' separation.
When he buried his mother and stepfather in Marysville, wrapped in doona covers tied with
cord - and, in Mr King's case, a chain attached to bricks - Wales made sure his
stepfather's body was on top.
"This man loved Mum unconditionally . . . but Mum used to manipulate him all the time . .
. I thought, if they're going to stay here at least he gets to be on top," Wales told
police.
A police summary said Wales, a former hairdresser, was financially supported by his
mother.
His feelings of anger and alienation climaxed in February this year, when Mrs Wales-King
asked him to consent to selling a family unit at Surfers Paradise without letting him see
the documents.
Feeling belittled, he began planning the murders. His Chilean-born wife knew nothing of
his plans, he later told police.
However, he confessed his actions to her as soon as he murdered the couple and Maritza
Wales made a false initial statement to police, saying her in-laws left their home
unharmed on the night of the murder.
Wales admitted to detectives that he stole blood pressure tablets from his mother-in-law
and crushed them together with Panadeine Forte before mixing them into the vegetable soup
he served the elderly couple. Later, as Mrs Wales-King, 68, and Mr King, 70, were leaving
his house, he hit them with a length of wood and covered them with his toddler son's
deflated pool.
"I made it as merciful as I possibly could," he told police.
When Matthew Wales killed his mother and stepfather, he immediately sought reassurance
from his wife.
Yesterday in court, she wasn't prepared to give it. Maritza Wales only glanced at her
husband once, before the couple pleaded.
Maritza Wales remains on bail. Magistrate Barbara Cotterell ordered the couple to face the
Victorian Supreme Court on December 18.
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Michael Lonergan
"Patty" <eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:f0e77308.0212...@posting.google.com...
> Victims took hours to die: report
> By Neil Mitchell
> The Sunday Mail
> 05dec02
>
> THE victims of Melbourne's notorious society murders may have lived
> for hours face down in a garden bed after being bashed by Matthew
> Wales.
This is really nasty. Suffocating in the garden mulch. Sheesh. I haven't
Patty
Picture of victims at
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/17/1034561265673.html
Rich couple's dinner of death was laced with drugs
By Greg Rule
October 18 2002
AAP
Matthew Wales served his Melbourne millionaire mother and stepfather a dinner of soup and
risotto sprinkled with drugs before he bashed them to death and buried them in a bush
grave.
Wales pleaded guilty yesterday to the so-called society murders of Margaret Wales-King,
68, and her husband Paul King, 70, on April 4 this year.
Wales killed his mother because he hated the way she used her money and position to
dominate the family, according to his interview with police and a police statement to the
court. The 34-year-old son killed the ailing Mr King because he believed he was the cause
of his parents' separation.
When he buried their bodies, he placed Mr King on top of Mrs Wales-King because it helped
correct "the wrongs and domination" the elderly man had endured at the hands of his wife.
On the night of the murders, Wales served pre-dinner drinks to his mother and stepfather
before preparing the meal at his and his wife Maritza's home.
Wales laced their vegetable soup with his mother-in-law's blood pressure tablets and a
Panadol Forte to make them drowsy. He then served vegetable risotto, red and white wine
and, later, dessert and camomile tea. At about 9.45pm, as Maritza Wales put their young
son Domenik to bed, Wales saw his drugs and alcohol-affected guests to the door.
As they walked down the pathway, he took a length of wood and bashed his mother "with a
great amount of force".
He then bashed his stepfather. When asked by police how many times he struck his victims,
Wales said: "I don't know. My head was just going bananas and I just kept hitting. I just
kept hitting."
Maritza Wales saw the bodies when she came downstairs, but was ordered back inside by her
husband. He dragged the bodies to a flower bed, later covering them with their son's
deflated wading pool.
"The accused was shivering in a cold sweat, unable to sleep," police said. "He checked the
bodies a number of times during the night."
The next day, Wales wrapped their bloodied heads in a torn sheet so "he wouldn't have to
view their faces, before hiring a trailer and wrapping the bodies in doona covers trussed
with cord and, in the case of Mr King, a chain attached to bricks".
"At this point the accused was contemplating immersing their bodies in ... water," police
said.
Wales placed the bodies in a trailer in his garage overnight. The next day he towed his
gruesome trailer load out of Melbourne. As he drove, he threw from the window plastic bags
containing Mrs Wales-King's belongings and his own bloodied clothing.
Near Marysville, east of Melbourne, he dug a grave, placed the bodies in it and covered
them with the deflated pool and dirt.
The next day, Wales filled the hired trailer with dirt dug from the garden where he
initially placed the bodies. Returning to the grave site, he covered the bodies with
garden dirt which he topped with rocks to stop interference from animals.
At a family gathering that night at his mother and stepfather's house, he said the pair
had left his house safe and well on the night of what was their final dinner. He described
it as "a pleasant evening without incident".
Wales was charged with the murders after a ranger discovered their graves. Blood was found
on the driver's side floor of Mrs Wales King's recovered Mercedes-Benz as well as blood on
Wales's garage floor.
Maritza Wales, 39, pleaded guilty yesterday to perverting the course of justice. She and
her husband will appear in the Victorian Supreme Court on December 18.
Michael Lonergan
"Patty" <la...@bug.com> wrote in message news:3df0...@post.newsfeed.com...
> *** post for FREE via your newsreader at post.newsfeed.com ***
>
> >
> > THE victims of Melbourne's notorious society murders may have lived
> > for hours face down in a garden bed after being bashed by Matthew
> > Wales.
>
> This is really nasty. Suffocating in the garden mulch. Sheesh. I
haven't
> been following this case Patty. Was the motive money or just plain hate?
>
> Michael <- looking around the flower beds at the nice, deep mulch
>
> A few of us were following this case earlier this year. Here's another
article
> on the case, to be followed with another one. Son says he's hated his
mother
> since he was a kid.
>
> Wales pleads guilty over murders
> October 18 2002
> By Selma Milovanovic
> The Age (Melbourne Australia)
>
> Matthew Robert Wales told police he had wanted to kill his "manipulative"
millionaire
> mother since he was a child.
>
Oh mi! Years of resentments and money on top of it. Not a good
combination.
Michael