I'm by no means some sort of true crime fan, I mean I like a 3 episode 'someone get murdered' Netflix documentry as much as the next person but it's not like I'm listening to podcasts and doing research and whatnot.
Well, except when True Crime is local, like in the suburb I live in, well then you need to listen to the podcast - which in this case is called 'Julie's Gone' which is tells the story, which I vaguely knew from a book I read last year of the 'Canning Street Disappearance of Julie Ann Garciacelay.
The basic story is on the 1st of July 1975 she 'disappeared', from the flat where she was living with her sister, this flat was in Canning Street in North Melbourne. Visiting her that evening where three people, at least two of which could fairly be described as 'dodgy as all fuck.' Also when I say 'disappeared' I meant most likely murdered, they just never found a body, nor did they ever charge anyone. The three guys claim Julie went to make a phone call at a phone box across the road, didn't come back, so they just left, because apparently that is what would would have done.
You can read the basics on Wikipedia including when her Sister returned home found her clothes scattered across the apartment and blood. The Podcast tells a little more, from the suggestion that complete police incompetence, to the mysterious Nuns who lived up the road at the Ukranian church who claim they saw a young women by dragged out of the phone booth across the road from their house by three men, which would seem fairly damming, except of course they didn't tell the police, nor did the police actually as anyone on the street if they saw anything.
So what has all of this got to do with me, well it seemed like a reasonable opportunity to go have a look at the street, and the apartments and the church which are all about a 10 minute walk from my house, so I present to you. Canning street and Photo Essay
This is the Flats where she lived - this is a fairly typical apartment block built in the 1960's in the inner city of Melbeurne.
This is the now very nice, plesance Gardens at the end of Canning Street, in 1975 this would have been a normal street and there was a pub on the corner, which is now apartments.
This is the Ukranian Church where the Nuns worked, they lived across the road, and the Phone box which they talk about would have been to the right of the church in this shot, it's of course no longer there, because you know everyone has a phone now, so no one need to go make a phone call at night from a phone booth.
and finally this is taken from the Church looking back towards the flats, as you can see it was about 70 metres away so again it's a little odd that the three men according to them didn't go and check when she didn't return, it's not like she could have got lost.
All in all it's a little weird to think all of this happened 50 years ago in buildings that still exist and of course almost no one knows about it, and it's gets very little coverage. Very odd