Elmer Crawford

[petermattson]

Many of you may be familiar with this case but it was new to me and I did not find a thread about it.

A husband and father of three, Elmer Crawford, murdered his entire family in their Glenroy, Australia home. After the murders, which included a homemade electrocution device, he staged a car accident scene 120 miles away in an attempt to frame his wife for murder/suicide. The car was intentionally driven off a cliff with his wife and children but did not plunge into the ocean as it is assumed Crawford intended. Instead, the car landed on a plateau and investigators were able to piece together what happened, even arriving at the original crime scene in the midst of Crawford's attempt to clean up. It is believed he fled out the back door as police were approaching his home.

Elmer Crawford then disappeared without a single credible trace in the 46 years since. A very large reward for information leading to his arrest offered in 2008 has gone unclaimed. It is a completely different type of vanishing more in line with the search for Mengele in South America than the typical cases of missing innocents.

Crawford would be 85 years old. Although it's quite possible he is deceased, the mystery can and should still be solved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawford_family_murder

[Regi]

So the mystery is as to where the man/husband/father disappeared to?

(I wish I could help.)

[petermattson]

So the mystery is as to where the man/husband/father disappeared to?

(I wish I could help.)

Yes. I think it will be solved eventually but it's hard for many people to see how they could begin to help, me included.

[Vincennes]

Well, the first part of the mystery that occurs to me is just how do you attach alligator clips to someone's ears while they are sleeping ? There had to be some other way to disable her long enough to haul the 49' cord into the room, attach and then keep her still to activate the electrocution mechanism.

Wiki also mentions that the will was changed just two weeks before the murders but it does sound like the plot was discovered not long after it happened. That would mean that he didn't have time enough to collect any of the money from the will. So where did he come up with the amount of funds necessary to float a disappearance or did he just lose everything and still managed to get away ?

Interesting case.

[petermattson]

Well, the first part of the mystery that occurs to me is just how do you attach alligator clips to someone's ears while they are sleeping ? There had to be some other way to disable her long enough to haul the 49' cord into the room, attach and then keep her still to activate the electrocution mechanism.

Wiki also mentions that the will was changed just two weeks before the murders but it does sound like the plot was discovered not long after it happened. That would mean that he didn't have time enough to collect any of the money from the will. So where did he come up with the amount of funds necessary to float a disappearance or did he just lose everything and still managed to get away ?

Interesting case.

I would imagine that it would have been a very difficult crime scene to piece together. For one thing, it seems he was in the process of cleaning up the home when the police arrived and therefore it would be hard to know what had been disturbed after the crime and what was part of the original scene. From what I can gather, he also attached a hose to the exhaust and put it through the car window. That part doesn't make any sense because he had to know if the bodies were found it would be obvious what they died from (not from inhaling exhaust).

There's this theory from Murderpedia:

"As an extra precaution, in case the car and the bodies were later found, he attached a hose to the exhaust and jammed it through the driver's side window to make it look as though Mrs Crawford had committed suicide after beating her children to death.

That's probably why she was the only one electrocuted and not bashed.

http://murderpedia.org/male.C/c/crawford-elmer.htm

[Regi]

Yes. I think it will be solved eventually but it's hard for many people to see how they could begin to help, me included.

Well you know, in the John List case, they'd sculptured that bust which bore an amazing resemblance as to how he actually did currently appear and (from what I understand) that was a big part of the reason he was recognized by a former neighbor. Also, though, I think together with the bust, his behavior was well described/accurate...

Anyway, I'd never heard of this case. Thanks for posting it.

[Vincennes]

I tried to research a little where this guy might have gone to. The sightings I came up with were all in Australia.

What I can't understand is the number of sub-plot method of murder and yet no financial planning toward leaving. I mean bashing his wife with a pipe wrapped in yard hose had to be iffy. Yet it is thought out. Then attaching a hose into the car that went over the cliff is also questionable. Was he going to say she meant for everyone to inhale it as they drove over the cliff ? Thought out to a point but crazy weird.

Then he seems to have been a thief; however, the amount he's said to have taken that I found was $3,000. Now his wife has enough money that they say would have made him comfortable for the rest of his life and he steals $3,000 worth of electrical parts ??? AND supposedly she's crazy enough that she hasn't seen that he has problems but rather is going to make him her heir ?

Then he floats away into the Out Back and never does another crazy thing to attract attention ??? Pls tell me how crazy enough to do all of the first things I've mentioned, he manages the last.

[petermattson]

I tried to research a little where this guy might have gone to. The sightings I came up with were all in Australia.

What I can't understand is the number of sub-plot method of murder and yet no financial planning toward leaving. I mean bashing his wife with a pipe wrapped in yard hose had to be iffy. Yet it is thought out. Then attaching a hose into the car that went over the cliff is also questionable. Was he going to say she meant for everyone to inhale it as they drove over the cliff ? Thought out to a point but crazy weird.

Then he seems to have been a thief; however, the amount he's said to have taken that I found was $3,000. Now his wife has enough money that they say would have made him comfortable for the rest of his life and he steals $3,000 worth of electrical parts ??? AND supposedly she's crazy enough that she hasn't seen that he has problems but rather is going to make him her heir ?

Then he floats away into the Out Back and never does another crazy thing to attract attention ??? Pls tell me how crazy enough to do all of the first things I've mentioned, he manages the last.

Right. It seems that some planning was involved. Yet, beating the children had to have resulted in massive bloody scenes and is clearly a sign of rage-killing. That doesn't seem like the type of murder one would commit if planning to go on with life as the grieving husband/father.

Additionally, I assume the money could only be collected if she were found dead or eventually declared dead. If he had succeeded in pushing the car into the water in an area 120 miles from home, it may have not been found or not found for a long time. How would that help him with the inheritance?

I feel like it all adds up to this: He planned to murder them but perhaps not that day. Something set him off and he murdered them in a rage and then panicked which resulted in various parts of his original plan completely disordered.

It is extra bizarre that a man capable of this horrific, violent, deliberate crime could go the rest of his life without (presumably) another incident. But maybe he didn't live long. It wouldn't surprise me if he took a high dive into the deep water himself shortly after and the body was just never found.

[Felon True Crime Podcast]