Did Ex-head of the South Australian Major Crime Department Take His Own Life?

by Rachel Vaughan

On the 1st of November, 2019, I was alerted to rumours that in October Doug Barr, ex-head of the South Australian major crime department, took drastic action. He is rumoured to have taken his own life.

It was confirmed last week by my brother Andrew McIntyre – who was told by an ex SAPOL detective – that those rumours are correct. However, current members of SAPOL have been told that Barr ‘had an incident’.

Probably the most compelling indication that Barr took his own life is the fact that there has been no fanfare in The Advertiser – Adelaide’s major newspaper – over Barr’s death.

This is unusual. Generally, the retirement of a major crime officer attracts a detailed Advertiser article and commendations for the exiting officer’s great service to the community ….. The passing of an ex-head of that department should attract even greater glorification.

However, Doug Barr’s passing has only been marked by funeral notices.

On the 26^th of October 2019, the Weekly Times – an Advertiser publication – issued this memorial to Barr on behalf of the Commissioner of Police:

“Mr Grant Stevens, on behalf of all members of the South Australian Police, extends his deepest sympathy and condolences to Doug’s wife Deborah, sons Nicholas and Christopher, and his friends and colleagues on this sad occasion. Chief Superintendent Doug Barr will be sadly missed throughout SAPOL.”

I must admit that I am not writing this article without bias. I had my own interactions with Doug Barr, as did my brother Andrew McIntyre. I cannot say that I held Doug Barr in high esteem.

I wrote my first letter to Doug Barr on the 28^th of June 2007. I call this missive a form letter as I also sent an identical version to several other police officers and parliamentarians on the same date.

In this form letter I asked Doug Barr why three victims’ allegations of paedophilia against our father Alan ‘Max’well McIntyre, and our witness accounts that we saw Max with dead bodies, was not being investigated by the major crime department or paedophile task force.

The recipients of my 28^th June 2007 form letter are listed here:

David Ridgeway MP;
Dennis Hood, MP;
Paedophile Task Force, Queensland (Denzel Clarke, Task Force Argus);
Doug Barr, Det. Insp. Major Crime;
Paul Holloway, MP;
Michael O’Connor, Victims’ Rights Commissioner;
Ted Mullighan, QC, Mullighan Inquiry;
Kris Hannah, MP;
Jane Lomax-Smith, MP;
Michael Atkinson, MP;
Jay Weatherill, MP;
Carmel Zollo, MP;
Nick Xenophon, MP;
Det. Supt. Phillip Hoff (SAPOL);
Attorney-General Robert McClelland, MP.

I never received a response from Doug Barr for my form letter.

However, I did receive a response from Paul Holloway on behalf of the major crime department. In his 8th August 2007 response (ref: MPOL 06/0035 – MPO7/D0482) Holloway states that major crime detectives:

“….have investigated the allegations of Mr Alan McIntyre’s involvement in the 1966 Beaumont children disappearance and the murders of Kelvin, Langley, Stogneff and Barnes. Police investigations show there is no evidence linking Mr Allan McIntyre to these matters. Further, they could find no evidence of a murder, death or disappearance of a child of about four years of age in 1977.”

I was horrified by the minister for the police’s 2007 response, and I am still horrified now.

Firstly, he did not address why the allegations of paedophilia against my father by myself and two siblings were being ignored– instead, he handballed the responsibility back to the Sexual Crimes Investigation Branch. Those allegations continued to be ignored by that department despite my continued efforts requesting an investigation, until a parliamentarian stepped in on my behalf in 2016. During that investigation in 2017 – 11 years too late – my father passed away. Case closed.

Secondly, Holloway did not address the fact that police refused to exhume the human remains, or pick up the evidence already offered to them – including a knife, hatchet, and rifle utilised by my father during his criminal conduct.

Finally, the four-year-old child referred to by Minister Holloway was most likely a ward of the state – whose disappearance would not have been reported to police, or recorded by wardens if submissions to the Mullighan Inquiry are to be believed.

Evidence had already been put forward in 2007 by officers of the Mullighan inquiry that doctors and the chief forensic officer who issued death certificates for South Australian wards of state had not included on those records the children’s cause of death. Their deaths were recorded as ‘natural causes’. This was not in line with legal and medical requirements at that time. In at least eight of these cases it was concluded that criminal misconduct was involved.

State wards gave accounts to the Mullighan Inquiry of children being ‘lent out to paedophiles’ by orphanage staff. Many of these children were never seen again. These allegations were so prevalent that these state wards were dubbed ‘the take-away kids’.

I spoke to Doug Barr briefly over the phone not long after I sent the above 2007 form letter to him. I had contacted him regarding an abusive phone call during which one of his detectives – Brian Swan – yelled at me over the phone that the file on the missing Beaumont children was “closed, and that’s the end of it”.

Doug Barr iterated the same sentiments, then hung up on me.

My brother Andrew McIntyre had a far more negative interaction with Doug Barr.

In October 2018 Andrew gave testimony to the International Tribunal for Natural Justice about our father’s criminal conduct and inaction by South Australian police regarding Andrew’s allegations against our father. Andrew’s testimony included a description of Doug Barr’s interference in Andrew’s attempt to make an official statement to police (2008)

In his ITNJ testimony Andrew states (at 41 minutes, 53 seconds):

“We all remember what happened on this day when the Beaumont children went missing. We thought that we only had to go to police and everything would be solved, right? No, that didn’t happen.

“I contacted police, and I talked to them. I talked to an [Detective] Annette Burden, and she arranged for me to go to Netley police station – which is close to where I live – to make a statement. They were waiting for me with the handcuffs to arrest me when I got there. More bizarre behaviour. I was sent down to be interviewed where I was being arrested.

“I speed dialled my solicitor because I was in, I had been in, going through a two-year court battle with my father and … he… [Andrew’s solicitor].. had a word with the police saying I know where my witness is. He’s a major witness in a major crime and I know where he is,’ so they had to let me go.

“They humiliated me, they indicated I was homosexual because I had a clutch bag that I kept my money and everything in. They tried to humiliate me. It was disgusting. But then, we had just brought in new laws here – terrorist laws – where you could be arrested, taken off the streets for 6 months without being able to make a phone call. That’s what they were going to do. I almost disappeared, right? …. The corruption is just incredible.

“Now what happened was I went down to Netley police station and I simply said I would like a couple, one or two officers to come with me to my family home at”.. [redacted].. “Street – I wish to dig up some bodies, right? Simply could have gone there and dug up the bones that I had seen buried there when I was a child. And all the other stuff. And I said contact Doug Barr, he’s the head of major crimes, he sent me down here, he can confirm it. And Doug Barr ordered that I be arrested, and taken off the street for the public safety. That’s a fact. It’s all fact.”

Andrew’s ITNJ testimony is here.

I now refer to a letter which my father wrote to Detective David S…. of the major crime department in 2012. In this letter my father predicted mass suicides in Adelaide.

My father wrote this letter in response to my official allegation at the major crime office in 2012 that he murdered a young girl in front of me in 1983 – whom I believe to be Louise Bell – and then buried her in our Edwardstown backyard.

In his letter to major crime detective David S…, my father asked that my siblings and I be ‘red flagged’. It is important to note here that around the time that this girl was murdered in 1983 there was a police operation in South Australia called Operation Deny. There was also a sister operation in the UK titled Operation Red Flag.

In his letter to Det. David S…, my father stated the following:

“Another aside is SA is going through the same nightmare as Alberta Canada which borders America and supplies cannabis over a porous border. The same thing every father a brutal rapist witches clovens torture then the government acted paying each complainant $50 000 spending $500 000 000 in compensation and everybody went home there was not one conviction recorded. Ninety accused committed suicide.”

My father’s letter seemed to have put a stop to Det. David S…. investigation into my claims.

Around the time that Detective David S… received my father’s letter, he rang me late on a Saturday night, in a discussion which included input from a second detective. This call appeared to have been made with the express purpose of convincing me that the child I saw murdered and buried by my father in 1983 was not Louise Bell. The detectives reiterated this a number of times, each time stating that they couldn’t tell me why they knew it was not Louise Bell, they just knew it wasn’t her.

Shortly afterward, in July, I was called back to the major crime office for another interview. This time I was ridiculed and maligned by Det. David S…… He stated that he no longer believed my testimony about the murder and burial of a young girl by my father. He stated I must be delusional. When I pointed out that I had provided a psychiatric report to the contrary, Det David S… declared that he had read my psychiatric report – but preferred to rely on his ‘years as a detective’ to assess my mental health.

He also indicated that the underground edifice where I stated my father had murdered this little girl ‘couldn’t possibly exist’. However, I have since proven the existence of this underground space.

He then wagged his finger at me, in front of my lawyer, and admonished me to “never call Crimestoppers or the major crime department again.”

What is most disturbing about Det. David S….’s treatment of me is the fact that a family member had just moments before backed up my claim to this detective. She had just reported a heinous fact, also heard by my lawyer, regarding something my father had done with the little girl’s body. This family member was an adult at the time that this occurred. Therefore this major crime detective didn’t just ignore my testimony, he ignored my family member’s testimony as well.

I think that my father was intending a secondary meaning — hidden in plain sight — in his reference that ‘everybody went home’ in his letter described above. I think my father was indicating to Det David S… that this little girl’s body had already been moved to another location – possibly one close to her former home in Hackham.

Perhaps this is why major crime detectives then launched a second investigation into Dieter Pfennig’s former home on Holly Rise in Hackham for her remains. But this second dig at that address yielded nothing, as had the first.

I looked up Alberta Canada to see if my father had been correct in his assertions about 90 accused committing suicide there. I have become accustomed to doing my own detective work in the past several years.

There is an interesting correlation between what my father says about Alberta Canada and the suicide rate for Calgary in 1998. According to Calgary chief medical examiner’s office, there were 96 suicides within the city limits in 1998:

10-19 years:        7
20-29 years:        16
30-39 years:        27
40-49 years:        21
50-59 years:        8
60-69 years:        9
70+ years:           8

Of the 71 Calgary city suicides in the under-49 range, 13 were females, while 58 – more than four times as many – were males. All of the suicides in the 10-19 range were male.

Calgary is a city in the western Canadian province of Alberta. 1998 saw 96 suicides for that province. I am not an expert on suicide. This may be a normal demographic for suicides. But I was surprised at the 8 suicides in the 70+ age range.

I also found this 20^th July 2019 information describing the prevalence of satanic worship in that very province – Calgary, Alberta.

It has been asked whether Andrew’s ITNJ description of Barr’s attempt to have him arrested was a contributing factor to Barr’s rumoured suicide. We may never know ‘officially’.

Andrew’s allegations regarding the 1966 disappearance of the three Beaumont children is compelling. Had his official statement been allowed at the Netley police station all those years ago, the ‘mystery’ of what happened to the Beaumont children may have been solved in time for their mother Nancy Beaumont to have closure.

Instead, poor Nancy died on the 16^th of September this year never knowing what happened to her three children.

Andrew continues to maintain that the remains of the Beaumont children are buried at our father’s former property at Stansbury on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.

This is an excerpt from a petition on Change.org requesting signatures from the public for a dig at that property.

This was written by third parties – my siblings and I played no part in the creation of the petition. I reproduce it here as it contradicts the negative opinion, by some people, of the testimony put forward by my siblings regarding the Beaumont children’s abduction.

Thus far the petition has garnered over 7,700 signatures:

“In January 1966 Jane, Arna, and Grant Beaumont disappeared from Glenelg Beach, South Australia. Despite multiple leads and millions of dollars spent on the investigation police have never uncovered any evidence of what happened to the Beaumont children. Now there is evidence that should be investigated.

“Andrew McIntyre has provided a statement to SA police naming his father, Max McIntyre and a family friend Anthony Munro as having detailed knowledge of what happened to the Beaumont children. Andrew McIntyre states that he was supposed to go to Glenelg Beach with his father and Munro on the day the children disappeared, but he was told to stay at home at the last minute.

“Andrew McIntyre says that several hours later his father Max McIntyre and Anthony Munro drove back to the house, both agitated and visibly upset. Andrew says that he saw blood and sand in Munro’s car. Andrews sister Ruth Collins provided a statement to police stating that she saw bodies of children in the boot of the car.

“Andrew states that a couple of weeks after the disappearance, a sinkhole on Max McIntyre’s property at Stansbury in South Australia was filled in. Aerial footage actually confirms that this occurred at around this time.

“In June 2017 Anthony Munro was convicted of serial sex offending against Andrew McIntyre dating back to the mid-1960s. … Anthony Munro pleaded guilty to the charges without challenging Andrew McIntyre’s version of events. Andrew McIntyre’s evidence was accepted by the South Australian District Court as truthful and factual….

“Max McIntyre died in June 2017.  Before his death he stated, on recorded video, that he had knowledge of what had happened to the Beaumont children.  The South Australian Police have to date shown no interest in excavating the sinkhole to pursue what is the most compelling evidence to have emerged in the 50-year-old investigation.

“We call on the South Australian Police to follow up on the evidence provided by Andrew McIntyre and to dig up the sinkhole …. His statement on the Beaumont children should be properly investigated.

“We ask you to please sign this petition to have the South Australian Police commence digging and excavating the location of this sinkhole on Max McIntyre’s property at Stansbury.  Andrew McIntyre can identify the location on the property…

“We ask you to sign our petition and share it in the hope we can find these 3 children and return them to their loving family.”

I already pointed out to the major crime department in my Form letter in 2007 (above) that their tardiness in investigating the claims of myself and siblings would have afforded my father ample time to move the remains of his victims.

In 2007 I wrote:

“I believe that several of the bodies of dead children are buried on one of my father’s properties – at least they were, but so much time has elapsed with no action from police that they have probably been exhumed and relocated by now – and my father even has a sign on this property declaring it to be protected by the crown. Why would an innocent man with nothing to hide have such a sign?”

As Dee McLachlan wrote in her article last week – ‘removing a crime scene skip by skip’ – the site where I saw a child buried on my father’s former property in Edwardstown – whom I believe to be Louise Bell – was dug up last Saturday the 23^rd of November by the new owners of the property. I may never know if evidence of her internment was still located there, as the site was not forensically examined.

It is imperative that my father’s former property at Stansbury now be forensically examined before any more evidence is destroyed.

On the night of my father’s death on the 13^th of June 2017 it was reported that suspicious fires burned on that Stansbury property.

So much evidence has already been lost.

It is time for the major crime department in South Australia to address the corruption in their ranks and finally act on the allegations which my siblings and I have been attempting to have addressed for 13 long years.