A Perth house where two of Australia’s most infamous serial killers undertook a spree of evil crimes in 1986 has been sold to a twenty-something bargain-hunting couple.
The three-bedroom home at 3 Moorhouse Street in the suburb of Willagee – the scene of the appalling ‘Moorhouse murders’ – was snapped up for $425,000.
Five women were held captive and brutally raped at the home by sadistic killers David and Catherine Birnie in October and November 1986. Two of the women were murdered there.
The Birnies killed two of the victims in national parks after raping them at the home.
3 Moorhouse Street, Willagee in Perth was the scene of ‘Moorhouse murders’ in 1986. It sold recently for $425,000 – $79,000 below the median for a similar house in the suburb
The four women raped and murdered by David and Catherine Birnie were (clockwise from top left): Mary Neilson, 22; Susannah Candy, 15; Denise Brown, 21 and Noelene Patterson, 31
The four women raped and murdered were Mary Neilson, 22; Susannah Candy, 15; Noelene Patterson, 31 and Denise Brown, 21.
The fifth victim, 17-year-old Kate Moir, escaped through the bedroom window while David Birnie was at work and Catherine was answering the door.
She endured a sleepless night chained up in the home and was repeatedly raped before she managed to flee to safety.
There has long been speculation David Birnie may also have been responsible for the murders of three other women – Cheryl Renwick, Barbara Western and Lisa Marie Mott – although it was never proven.
Renwick reported being stalked by a man and a woman before she disappeared.
The agent who sold the recently renovated home, Tony Papineau of One Residential, said he had sold the home ‘three times in the past eight years’.
‘I love a good challenge, though I am selective,’ Mr Papineau told Daily Mail Australia.
David (left) and Catherine Birnie (right) were convicted over the murders of four women, aged between 15 and 31, they kidnapped and raped in 1986
The renovated bedroom at 3 Moorhouse Street. The fifth and final victim Kate Moir escaped the front bedroom when Catherine Birnie left the room and David Birnie was at work
He said the ratio of people disturbed by the home’s history to those unfazed was ‘about 50-50’.
‘The young couple that bought it they looked around but this was a good price, it is a good buy,’ he said.
The median sale price for a three-bedroom home in Willagee is $504,000 – far above the price obtained for 3 Moorhouse Street.
In 2015 the home went on the market for $579,000 but it didn’t sell.
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Mr Papineau spoke the the previous owners each time he’d sold it and none reported it being haunted.
Catherine Birnie, who is still held at Bandyup Women’s Prison in WA, lured victims to their capture and participated in the rapes and murders of victims
‘One was a nurse from the UK and she said ‘I worked in emergency, I’m used to dealing with death, it doesn’t affect me’,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
At trial, in 1987 David Birnie pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and one count each of abduction and rape. He was sentenced to four consecqutive sentences of life imprisonment. When asked why he pleaded guilty, he gestured to the victims’ families and said, ‘It’s the least I could do.’
Catherine Birnie was also sentenced to four terms of life imprisonment.
Both were eligible for parole after 20 years, but David Birnie killed himself in Casuarina Prison in 2005, aged 54.
Catherine Birnie, now 69, remains at Bandyup Women’s Prison and has repeatedly denied parole. The arresting officer Paul Ferguson told PerthNow she should never be released.
‘I honestly believe that woman has never given those victims one ounce of consideration, both the dead victims and the families of the victims,’ he said.
Catherine and David Birnie were never legally married, though both were married to other people. She changed her surname to Birnie by deed poll.
The pair, who began a twisted relationship puncuated by crime when each was 13, exchanged an estimated 2,600 letters in prison.
Ferguson said: ‘They were parasites who lived off each other, the most evil people I’ve ever, ever come across.’
