While the murders John Leslie Coombes committed were all different, his stories surrounding them were disturbingly similar.
The man in the northern suburbs police station seemed to have all the answers, which was hardly surprising. He had been through this process a few times before.
The two homicide detectives, Tim Day and Leigh Smyth, interviewing Coombes found him “very personable”.While Coombes may have thought he had all the answers, he didn’t know all the questions. “I looked at Leigh, and we both thought we needed to have a closer look at this bloke.”Coombes would give several self-serving versions of what happened before pleading guilty to murder. Finally, his papers were marked to never be released.
Always determined, he took to fitness later in life. Tragically, he died while competing in a Queensland triathlon on November 5 last year. His lack of control, the court was told, was due to the head injury he sustained in the army truck smash. He was sentenced to a minimum of 11 years.John Coombes leaves the Melbourne Supreme Court in 2011.In February 1984, Coombes, and another man took Michael Speirani on a boat trip, luring him on the pretence of buying his car.
In August 2009, Betts told friends she was going with her boss on a fishing trip. On August 10, a friend heard her on the phone talking to a man called John in a coded conversation about drugs. Then, when they were at the Phillip Island house, he claimed Betts said she had pimped the two girls out as a way of paying off her drug debts. “Girl’s got to pay her debts,” Coombes claimed she said.Raechel Betts was devoted to the two teenagers in her care.
He dragged Betts’ body into the bath and spent hours dismembering her. While initially Godfrey gave Coombes an alibi, police continued to work on her until she gave a second version.
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