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Catherine Birnie

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Catherine Margaret Birnie (Born Catherine Margaret Harrison, 23 May 1951) is an Australian serial killer from Perth, Australia. Along with her husband (David John Birnie), she was involved in the 1986 apprehension, rape, and murder of four women ranging in age from 15 to 31. After attempting to murder a fifth victim, her and her husband were apprehended and sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment. This series of crimes was dubbed as the Moorhouse Murders, after the Birnie home at 3 Moorhouse Street, in which the murders occurred.

Contents [hide]

1 Early Years

2 David Birnie

3 Crimes

4 Victims

4.1 Mary Neilson

4.2 Susannah Candy

4.3 Noelene Patterson

4.4 Denise Brown

4.5 Kate Moir

5 Trial

6 Imprisonment

7 Media Coverage

8 References

Early life [ edit ]

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Catherine Margaret Harrison was born on May 23rd, 1951 in Western Australia. When Catherine was two, her mother died while giving birth to her younger brother. Two days after birth, her brother died as well.[1]

Unable to raise her alone, Catherine’s father sent her to live with her maternal grandparents. This ended in a custody dispute when Catherine was ten years old, in which her father gained re-custody of Catherine.

David Birnie [ edit ]

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Catherine met David Bernie when she was twelve. Her father was aware of David’s past history with law enforcement, and urged Catherine not to involve herself with David. In an attempt to rebel against her father, Catherine had entered into a relationship with David by the time she was 14 years old.

After being arrested as an adolescent for several years, Catherine grew apart from David. Upon her release from prison, Catherine began working as a housekeeper at the request of her parole officer.

During her time as a housekeeper for the McLaughlin family, Catherine grew close to Donald McLaughlin and married him in 1971. Catherine and Donald had seven children together, one of which died at the age of two after being hit by a car.

In 1985, while in the hospital for a hysterectomy, Catherine was tracked down again by David Birnie. Catherine left her husband and children to live with David. While her and David never married, she did change her last name to Birnie.

Crimes [ edit ]

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One year after Catherine and David reunited, the two began a five week crime spree which resulted in the rape and murder of four women, ages 15 to 31. Most of the murders occured in or around the town of Willagee, a Southern suburb of Perth.

There is speculation that the Birnies were responsible for the murder of Cheryl Renwick in May of 1986,[2] and Barbara Western in June of 1986. Barbara Western was last seen leaving a tavern in Perth, and her remains were uncovered from a shallow grave outside of the town, where her jewelry had been removed. This led to speculation that the Birnies could have committed the murder, as this was one of their key identifying features.[3]

Victims [ edit ]

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Mary Neilson [ edit ]

Mary Neilson was a 22 year old college student studying psychology at the University of Western Australia when she met David Birnie at the spare parts yard where he worked. He offered to sell her cheap car tires, and gave Neilson his phone number.[4] When she subsequently visited the Birnies’ house on October 6th, 1986, she was gagged, chained to a chair, and raped by David while Catherine watched the two.

She was then taken to Gleneagles Park in Bedfordale where she was raped again and strangled with a nylon cord. After she died, David stabbed her thinking it would accelerate her decomposition. Her body was buried in a shallow grave in the park.

Susannah Candy [ edit ]

Two weeks after murdering Mary Neilson, 15 year old Suzannah Candy was abducted while hitchhiking. She was held at knifepoint at gagged before being taken back to the Birnie’s house in Willagee. Candy was then forced to contact her parents, reassuring them that she was alright. Candy was again chained to a bed and raped. David attempted to strangle Candy but she became hysterical so David forced sleeping pills down her throat. He then asked Catherine to kill Candy, which she did.

Candy was buried in a grave near Mary Neilson.

Noelene Patterson [ edit ]

On November 1st, 1986, the Birnies picked up 31-year-old Noelene Patterson after Patterson had run out of gas on her way home. Once inside the car, she was held at knifepoint and driven back to the Birnie’s house, where she was again gagged, chained, and raped repeatedly. Rather than killing her that night, David decided to keep her captive in their house for three days.

Sensing a romantic connection between David and Patterson, Catherine insisted on David choosing between the lives of Patterson or Catherine herself. David then strangled Patterson, and she was buried near the Birnies’ other victims.

Denise Brown [ edit ]

Four days after abducting Noelene Patterson, the couple apprehended Denise Brown, 21-years-old at the time, at a bus stop in Western Perth, offering her a ride before instead taking her at knifepoint to their home in Willagee. After David had raped the victim in their home, the couple brought her to a forest, where David raped her again as they awaited the seclusion of nightfall. Dragging her into the forest, David raped her once more before stabbing her with a knife and placing her in a shallow grave. Denise proceeded to sit up, surprising the couple, and prompting David to strike her twice with an axe, before burying her bleeding remains in a grave on the Wanneroo Pine Plantation.

Kate Moir [ edit ]

Like many of the couple’s other victims, Kate Moir, just 17-years-old at the time, was abducted at knifepoint after accepting a ride from the Birnie couple on November 9th, 1986. Once in the car, the couple forced her to call her mother. Kate informed her mother that she had been out drinking and would spend the night at a friend’s house. She had hoped her mother would realize the danger she was in, given that she was not a drinker, however, her mother failed to notice her hints. Notably, Kate asked the couple whether they would rape her or kill her, to which they replied, “we’ll only rape you if you are good.”

The day after her abduction, Kate was able to escape after Catherine had forgotten to chain her to the bed while completing a drug deal. Taking advantage of her opportunity at escape, Kate broke a locked window and fled, knocking on various neighbors’ doors and being bitten by a dog, before ultimately finding help at a vacuum cleaner shop. After the authorities arrived, she related the events of the days prior to initially skeptical officers. The lone female officer on duty at Palmyra Police Station, Laura Hancock, was the sole officer to seriously consider the claims of Ms. Moir, citing the “few intricate details of which [Ms. Moir] answered immediately” as key. She explained that “you can’t bed down those intricacies if you’re going to tell just a made-up story.” Kate related various highly-specific details including their address, telephone number, and the presence of a Rocky VHS copy in the VCR. She had also hid drawings around the house as proof of her presence. Although the couple had used aliases, she knew of the name “David Birnie” after she had read it on a medicine container. After further police investigation, many of these details checked out, prompting the arrest of both David and Catherine. Vital evidence, however, had been burned by Catherine before the officers had arrived. Once in custody, the couple gave conflicting testimony: Catherine denied any knowledge of Ms. Moir while her husband argued that their sex was consensual. After hours of failed attempts to have the couple confess, Vince Katich had a breakthrough when David fell for his bluff and informed the detective of four grave locations.

Trial

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On November 12th, 1986, Catherine and David Birnie were tried for four counts of murder and one count of abduction and rape at Fremantle Magistrates’ Court, without legal representation. They then returned to court on February 10th, 1987. Initially violently protesting that the guards not touch her, Catherine held her husband’s hand as her sentence was read: she would serve four consecutive life sentences in Bandyup Prison in Northern Perth, with no option for parole for the first 20 years. As she was escorted to prison, she reacted violently, kicking and screaming. She did not appeal her sentence.

Imprisonment [ edit ]

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Despite writing over 2,600 letters for one another while imprisoned, the couple were denied any physical contact. After David’s suicide on October 7th, 2005, Catherine was not allowed to attend her husband’s funeral. During her time at Bandyup Prison, Catherine has served as the prison librarian and featured in the prison production of Nunsense.

She was denied parole in 2007 before the Attorney-General of Western Australia publicly declared that she was unlikely to be released while he remained in office. Just two years later, On March 14th, 2009, Catherine Birnie became the third ever Australian women to be marked “never to be released,” following requests from her victim’s families. Her appeal of this decision was denied in March, 2010. Subsequent bids for parole in 2013 and 2016 have been also declined. Her case will be reviewed once more in 2019.

In 2016, the Birnie’s lone surviving victim, Kate Moir, initiated a campaign to amend a law that automatically puts convicts up for parole every three years, citing that Catherine Birnie has never applied for parole herself. Catherine’s own son, Peter, supports this campaign, additionally calling for her execution.

Media Coverage[ edit ]

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On August 27th, 2016, Casefile True Crime Podcast covered the couple’s exploits and case.

On February 8th, 2017, the couple’s abduction and rape of Kate Moir was covered in a two part episode of Murder Uncovered, an Australian TV series that explored some of Australia’s most dastardly crimes.

On November 9th, 2017, the case was explored on the podcast My Favorite Murder.

References [ edit ]

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 * 1) http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/birnie-david.htm
 * 2) https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/missing-mum-linked-to-birnie-murders-ng-b88374591z
 * 3) https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/murder-uncovered-reveals-more-possible-victims-of-david-and-catherine-birnie-20170208-gu8o1o.html
 * 4) https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/catherine-and-david-birnie-claimed-first-victim-30-years-ago/news-story/c2701f916c53d333d32699ea065e0719?from=rss-basic