Episode 12: Stranded: The Anita Cobby Story
Listen to episode here:
It was the 2nd of February 1986. A Sunday. Late summer in the southern hemisphere. Anita Cobby, a nurse at Sydney Hospital in central Sydney, had finished her shift at 3pm. She had met two nursing friends for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant in Redfern. One of her friends drove her to Central railway station, where she took the 21:12 train to Blacktown. She had been staying with her parents for the past six weeks, after separating from her husband, John. She disembarked the train at Blacktown railway station, a little before 10pm. It was dark.
Anita attempted to call her father, Garry to collect her. She found that someone had vandalised the public payphone at the train station, and it was unusable and decided to walk the 25-30 minutes home. Anita looked around her, took a deep breath, and began walking away from the train station towards her home.
She soon found herself on Newton Road. It was quiet at this time of night. As Anita walked, she became aware of a vehicle on the road, and quickly became uneasy. The car, a boxy white sedan or saloon with an exaggerated front and rear was a HT Holden Kingswood. Inside the car were five men of varying ages. She could not have known at the time that the vehicle was stolen, or that the passengers all had criminal records. The vehicle came to an abrupt stop, and two of the men jumped out and grabbed her, bundling her into the back of the car.
Anita Cobby’s Background
Anita Lynch was born on the 2nd of November 1959 to parents, Garry and Grace ‘Peggy’ Lynch. Garry was a graphic artist with the Royal Australian Air Force, and Peggy was a nurse. Anita had younger a sister, Kathryn. Garry and Peggy raised their family in the outer-western suburb of Blacktown, located 34 km or 21 miles west of Sydney’s Central Business District.
In November 1979, the month she turned 20, Anita won the Miss Western Suburbs Pageant. She had been participating in beauty pageants for several years as a teenager. She later began to train as a nurse at Sydney Hospital, meeting fellow nurse, John Cobby, the man who would become her husband. John and Anita married on the 27th of March 1982, but at the time of Anita’s abduction had separated. By early 1986, Anita had temporarily moved back in with her parents and was commuting to her nursing job in central Sydney. John had done the same, and the two were in frequent contact with each other.
Witnesses
A family had witnessed Anita’s abduction. They had been inside their house when they heard a woman screaming outside of their home. A 13-year-old boy, his mother and younger sister watched in horror as two men dragged Anita into the waiting car. He called the police and gave a description of what he had seen, and the make and model of the car.
The family were still outside when their older brother and his girlfriend arrived home. Having informed their brother of what had just happened, the man got in his car in pursuit of the white Holden Kingswood. He came across an abandoned white car on Reen Road, a 10-minute drive from where the abduction had taken place. There was no trace of the girl or the perpetrators. He reasoned that the police would also be searching for them and decided that there was nothing else that he could do to help and returned home.
The Night of the Abduction
Once her attackers had her inside the vehicle, they ordered Anita to remove her clothes. She refused. She tried to reason with her abductors. She begged them to let her go. It didn’t work. Instead, Anita was punched repeatedly in the face by multiple men to subdue her. At this point, she would have known that she was in extreme danger. As they drove, two of the men raped Anita on the floor of the car. They continued to take turns beating her. One of the men began rifling through her bag and found her wallet.
They refuelled using money they had stolen from Anita. The gang stopped on a country road, and pulled Anita into a ditch, where they took turns holding her down, while repeatedly raping her. Soon after this, the group arrived on Reen Road, and pulled up alongside a secluded cow paddock that backed onto Prospect Reservoir. They dragged Anita through the barbed wire fence that separated the road from the secluded field.
The five men continued to abuse Anita, physically and sexually, for several more hours. When they had finished with her, they argued about what to do next. One of the men, the ringleader, decided that she would have to be killed to prevent her from identifying them to the police. He then took out a knife, and encouraged by the rest of the group, proceeded to slit Anita’s throat and watch her bleed out.
The Search
Garry and Peggy Lynch certainly noticed their daughter’s absence that evening but were not alarmed in any way. The next day, on Monday afternoon, Garry received a phone call from the Duty Sister at the hospital where Anita worked to ask why Anita had not turned up for her 1:30pm shift. At first, Garry was not overly concerned. He suggested that the Duty Sister check with her workmates. This is when Garry was informed that it had been her workmates who had first raised the alarm.
Upon hearing this, Garry knew that something was very wrong. He called friends, family members, work colleagues, and even her estranged husband John. Every call produced a dead end. By late afternoon, Garry and Peggy were frantic with worry. They finally contacted local police.
Discovery of the Body
On Tuesday morning, John Reen, the farmer who owned the paddock off Reen Road had observed some of his cows acting in an unusual manner. According to his statement to police, the cows were milling around an object in the Boiler Paddock that housed older cows. When he went to investigate and discovered that it was not an object at all on the ground, but a woman’s naked and mutilated body.
When police arrived, they surmised that whoever had committed this violent crime, had dragged the victim through the barbed wire fence before dumping her body in the field. The victim’s injuries were extensive. It was clear that her throat had been cut. This cut had been so deep as to almost decapitate the victim.
While the body did not yet have a name, Blacktown police detectives were confident that they knew her identity. Later that day, two police officers arrived at the Lynch home to inform the distraught parents that a body had been found that matched Anita’s description. The coroner found that Anita had been raped repeatedly by several perpetrators. She had two broken cheekbones, a broken nose, and extensive bruising on her face, head, shoulders, breasts, legs and thighs.
Media Reaction
By Thursday the 6th of February, news of Anita’s abduction and gruesome murder had reached the Australian public, who were appalled. The New South Wales State Government posted a A$50,000 reward for information leading to the capture of her killers. That same day, Australian radio broadcaster John Laws read a leaked copy of Anita’s autopsy report live on air. In it, he detailed her extensive injuries, which both shocked and further outraged the public, who were unaccustomed to hearing such explicit details of a crime. Meanwhile, police were closing in on their suspects, a gang of five local men with a litany of convictions between them, and a history of increasingly violent crimes.
Perpetrator Backgrounds
On the 11th of February, police received an anonymous tip from the public that led them to the stolen Holden Kingswood, which brought them closer to identifying the suspects. These were natives of Blacktown and the surrounding areas; Michael Murdoch, brothers, Michael, Les and Gary Murphy, and John Travers, all known to authorities. According to the Wikipedia entry for Anita’s murder, all five suspects had over fifty convictions between them. These included crimes such as breaking and entering, drug use, assault, rape, larceny, car theft, armed robbery, receiving stolen goods, and escaping lawful custody.
Michael Murdoch, aged 19, had a lengthy criminal record. Known to friends and family as Mick, he had spent much of his childhood in juvenile detention centres. He and John Travers had been friends since early childhood. His first conviction had been for smoking marijuana with Travers when he was 12. The two considered themselves to be blood brothers. Some suggested that the two were more than just friends, but the duo denied this.
As young teenagers, Murdoch and Travers began to prowl for victims to rape and sexually assault. At first, they selected victims from a local pool hall they frequented, and eventually, they would stake out train stations and other busy public places, such as parks, looking for victims to stalk and attack. They always beat and threatened their victims into silence. Travers, accompanied by Murdoch, would also attack and rape men.
Three of the gang that had attacked and abducted Anita that night were siblings from the same family. Les, at 22, was the youngest of the Murphy brothers. The family had nine children, two girls and seven boys, and grew up in inner west Sydney. He had several juvenile convictions for theft and was known for having an explosive temper. He began stealing at the age of ten. At the time of the attack on Anita, Les was living with girlfriend Lisa Travers, younger sister of John Travers.
Gary, who was 28, had a history of car theft. He left school and began to work for a builder, but cars and stealing them was his true passion. Michael was the oldest of the Murphy family. The Murphy family were well-acquainted with the law. By the time Michael was 12, he regularly clashed with his parents. He was sent to live with his grandparents. Here, he had little in the way of rules or boundaries, and his penchant for petty crime was allowed to develop without the supervision of adults who would hold him accountable for his actions.
The brothers stole together, fought together and as their crimes began to evolve, they began to target lone women to mug. Eventually, the Murphy family moved further west to Blacktown, into public housing. They connected with other local youth living a similar lifestyle and with outlook on life and began to operate as a gang. In late 1985, Michael escaped from Silverwater Correctional Centre. He had been serving a sentence for a total of 33 separate burglary, breaking and entering and larceny charges. At the time of Anita Cobby’s murder, he had been on the run for approximately six weeks.
John Travers’ Background
John Raymond Travers, aged 18, was the youngest of the group, but what he lacked in age, he made up for in sadism and an affinity for cruelty. Travers was an extremely violent individual, who lacked any kind of conscience for the crimes he committed. He was also the ringleader of the gang.
Born in 1968 to teenage parents, Sharon and Ken, Travers was the oldest of eight children. His childhood was marred by poverty and violence. The family were raised in the outer Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt, a short distance from Blacktown. Travers’ father, Ken, left the family in 1981, when Travers was 13.
By the time he was 14, John Travers was already a functioning alcoholic. He had been expelled from school, and had a sporadic employment history, relying on government-assisted unemployment payments to survive. When Travers was home, he supported his family through crime, including stealing animals such as chickens and ducks, which he would personally butcher before cooking. It later emerged that a teenaged Travers was sexually abusing the animals before killing them. This escalated to bestiality.
It is believed that John Travers was responsible for the violent rapes of at least 12 men and women prior to the attack on Anita Cobby. He was heavily tattooed, including a distinctive teardrop tattoo on his face. In summer 1985, one of his victims went to the police with a description of her attacker. She had been raped and beaten in the Toongabbie area by a gang led by a teenager with a teardrop tattoo beneath his left eye.
Travers had heard that New South Wales police were looking for him, and he, along with three of his cronies, including Mick Murdoch temporarily fled to Western Australia. Here, the gang became friendly with a 17-year-old local boy. One night, Travers led his gang to the boy’s home, forced their way in and violently beat and raped the boy in front of his gang. This included holding a knife to his victim’s throat and kicking him while he lay on the ground after the rape.
Apprehension
On the morning of the 22nd of February 1986, police raided a property in Wentworthville, near to Blacktown. There, they found Travers and Murdoch naked in bed together. Police also found a bloodstained knife stuffed under a mattress. The two admitted to car theft but denied having had anything to do with Anita Cobby’s disappearance. They claimed that the bloodstains on the knife were from killing a sheep. In another raid, police also picked up the Murphy brothers.
Two of the Murphy brothers were charged with car theft and released on bail. Police tailed both brothers, hoping that they would lead them to the stolen vehicle, which could contain a wealth of forensic evidence. John Travers was held in custody for questioning on a series of sex offences, including the one in Toongabbie the previous year. Travers requested a visitor and gave authorities the name and number of an acquaintance, a young woman he had previously been close with. All documentation refers to this witness as Miss X, to protect her identity.
Miss X
Miss X was a friend and confidante of John Travers, reported in some media to have been his aunt. An ex-heroin addict, Miss X was terrified of John Travers, and knew how violent he could be. When police contacted her, she was fully willing to tell them what she knew. Meeting in a public place, she told police about two rapes that Travers had confessed to her about.
She agreed to bring Travers cigarettes, and to report anything he told her about the crime to police. In a private meeting with Travers, he confessed to Anita Cobby’s rape and murder, including on a hidden tape recorder. Later, Miss X would testify at trial as to what she knew. She was given a new identity, and she and her family were moved to another location.
The Arrests
When police arrested Mick Murdoch and Les Murphy, they immediately blamed Travers and said that he was both the instigator and the murderer. John Travers then made a full confession, individually naming each of his co-accused. Police then set out to find and arrest the remaining two Murphy brothers.
Between the five men, police were able to piece together a timeline of what had happened and when. On the day of the crime, the men had been drinking in the Doonside Hotel. John Travers suggested they go on a joyride in a vehicle he had stolen the previous week, the white Holden Kingswood. They needed money for fuel and decided to steal a woman’s handbag. When they saw Anita Cobby walking down Newton Road, they decided to target her. There was no particular reason that they chose Anita, other than that they happened upon her as she made her way home. The plan was just to steal her handbag, along with any cash she may have on her, but the gang said that upon looking at her, Travers had decided that he wanted her, and so they snatched her from the street.
After they had dumped Anita’s body in the Reen paddock, they drove to John Travers home. He was covered in blood, which he explained away to his mother Sharon, as being from a dog that had barked at them. They told her that they had killed the dog, and she did not question it.
The gang felt a sense of exhilaration from their earlier escapades. They asked Travers how it had felt to kill someone, and he said, ‘It didn't feel like nothing. I didn't feel anything at all’. The group then burned all of Anita’s belongings in Travers’ back garden. Five days later, they drove the car to a clearing in the bush and set it on fire.
Public Reaction
Reports soon emerged that the police had charged several individuals with Anita Cobby’s murder. An angry crowd of up to 1500 people descended on Blacktown police station, blocking the surrounding streets. An Armed Tactical Response Group were called in case the surging crowd began to riot.
While this was happening, the media could not get enough of this story. Discussions on reinstating the death penalty could be heard on every form of media. A Sydney-based TV station ran a phone-in poll asking if the death penalty should be reintroduced in Australia, and 95% of the 16,000 callers were in favour of this resolution. The New South Wales government received tens of thousands of signatures in the form of a petition demanding reinstatement of the death penalty.
Trial & Sentencing
On the 16th of March 1987, the trial for Travers, Murdoch and the Murphy brothers began in central Sydney. Sensationally, just minutes before the trial was due to begin, John Travers changed his plea to guilty and accepted full responsibility for his part in the crime. The trial began the following week and would last for a total of 54 days. On the 10th of June 1987, Michael Murdoch and Les, Gary and Michael Murphy were each found guilty of sexual assault and murder.
Justice Alan Maxwell described the abduction and murder of Anita Cobby as being one of the ‘most horrifying physical and sexual assaults’. He said that this was ‘a calculated killing done in cold blood’. Before sentencing was passed, he stated that the perpetrators should be granted the ‘same degree of mercy they bestowed on their victim’. All five perpetrators who had taken Anita’s life and freedom, were sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The judge in the case asked for each of the files of those convicted of this crime to be marked ‘never to be released’.
Aftermath
John Travers, Mick Murdoch and Les and Gary Murphy remain behind bars in undisclosed locations around Australia in maximum security prisons. Michael Murphy died in February 2019 at Long Bay jail hospital after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 65.
Garry and Peggy Lynch channelled their grief into helping other victims’ families. They set up the Homicide Victims Support Group in 1993, alongside Christine and Peter Simpson, parents of another murdered child. Garry Lynch died in 2008, at the age of 90. Peggy Lynch died in 2013, at the age of 88. A park located on Sullivan Street in Blacktown was named after Anita. It is called the Anita Cobby Reserve.
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