Back on July 2, 1970, tourists visiting Loch Ard Gorge, Australia, found a crashed car teetering on the edge of an oceanside cliff. It looked like the car could plunge into the water at any moment. After investigators were called to the scene, the mystery grew deeper. The car’s license plate was traced to a family living over 100 miles away.

Once the car was towed from the cliff’s edge, the inside was inspected. Investigators were horrified to find four dead bodies, including three young children. The back seat of the car had been removed and someone had attached a hose leading from the tailpipe to the front window, suggesting suicide. This find sent waves of grief and confusion throughout Australia. There were so many questions and very few answers.

Join us at the quiet end for Fugitive Father, a dialogue about a terrible crime which has become an enduring mystery. The victims in the car were identified as members of the Crawford family from 136 Cardinal Road, but the father was missing. It seemed possible that Elmer Crawford had been thrown from the vehicle, until witnesses came forward to say that they had seen Elmer after the car was found.

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Sources

Almost Perfect: The True Story of the Brutal, Unsolved Crawford Family Murders, Greg Fogarty, 2010

Crawford Executed, Bashed Family, Heraldsun.com.au, 2/10/2008

The Crawford Family, Felon S1 E1, 3/10/2020

Killer Crawford Still Haunts Ex-Cop, The Standard (Warrnambool), 7/13/2010

Precise Detailed Detection of Faces and Facial Features, IEEE Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Ding, L., Martinez, A. 2008

The Crawford Children: Katherine, James, & Karen