Stuart Pearce (33yo), Meredith (31 years) and their four children, Adam (11 years), Travis (9 years) Matthew (8 years) and Kerry (2 years) lived in a quiet house on Jackson Street, Parafield Gardens, in the North Western suburbs of Adelaide.
Saturday the 5th of January 1991 was a day like any other. After having dinner and putting the kids to bed, around 9pm, Meredith Pearce took a phone call from her sister. She made sure to speak quietly as her husband slept before starting his midnight shift at Wingfield BP fuel station. While Meredith chatted with her sister, she gave no indication that anything was wrong or that she and her family were under any threat.
Apparently everything was fine, as Stuart followed his usual routine when doing a midnight shift, which was to wake up around 10pm, have a meal, shower then drive the roughly 15 minutes to Wingfield to start his midnight shift.
The next morning, on Sunday the 6th of January 1991, Metropolitan Fire Service was called to the Pearce family home to find it ablaze. The fire had been reported at 7:17am, Stuart’s nightshift ended at 6:50am. The bodies of Meredith, and three of their three children, Adam, Travis, and Kerry, were found after the fire was extinguished. Matthew, luckily, had spent the night at a friend’s house.
Meredith Pearce was found in her bedroom tied to a chair, she had a towel stuffed in her mouth, and was strangled with an electrical cord. The media reported that Adam and Travis had also been tied to chairs and had been asphyxiated by having plastic bags cover their heads. 2-year-old Kerry was reported to have been smothered to death. Autopsies revealed the family had died before the fire had been lit.
Police speculate that Stuart murdered his family before going to work. During their investigations, it was revealed that gas bottles had been set around the house on the night prior to the fire, but these failed to explode. Police suspect that Pearce returned home after his night shift and used other accelerants around the house to set the fire, before fleeing to dump his car.
Stuart’s distinctive white 240K Datsun coupe was found dumped at Arndale shopping Centre in Kilkenny, which is around 13km (8 miles) from the family home (and 4.9km [3 miles] from his workplace). Meredith’s blood was found in the boot of the car and on a door trim. Police believe that her blood was most likely transferred to the car from Stuart.
A Police search of the property during their investigation reve
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Stuart Pearce told this amazing story on Talksport:
>“I did fantasy football with my son Harley, who was eight years old at the time, and they did it at the school with all the kids and all the teachers and we worked our way up the league to that final week where it was my son Harley and the headmaster were neck and neck.
>I think we were one point behind. I picked the phone up to Alex Ferguson on the Wednesday before this game on the Saturday and I asked him the question under the guise of the England Under-21 manager.
>Who are you going to be playing, Jones or Smalling at the back? I’m thinking of coming to the game to watch them.
>He told me which one he was going to play. I transferred a player and that player went into our fantasy team.
>I hang my head in shame now but we won by a point because we got a clean sheet...All I can say in my defence is… champione, champione.”
On Sunday, January 6th, 1991 at 7:17am, Firefighters were called to a house fire on Jackson Street, Parafield Gardens, a northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia.
Inside the house, Meredith Pearce was found in her bedroom tied to a chair with had a towel stuffed in her mouth, she was strangled with an electrical cord. Three of the family's four children were found dead inside the home, Adam, aged 11 and Travis, aged 9 had also been tied to chairs and had been asphyxiated with plastic bags over their heads. Kerry, aged 2, was smothered to death. An autopsy revealed all four had died before the fire was lit.
A fourth child Matthew, aged 8, survived because he had spent the previous night at a friend's house.
Father and husband Stuart Pearce had worked a night shift at a BP petrol/gas station at Wingfield, a 15 minute drive from the family home, his shift started at 9pm the previous night and ended at 6:50am, 27 minutes before the fire was reported.
Stuart's distinctive car, a 240k Datsun coupe, was later found abandoned at Arndale Shopping Mall. His wife, Meredith’s blood was found in the boot of the car and on a door trim. Police believe that her blood was most likely transferred to the car from Pearce. A Police search of the property during their investigation revealed that Stuart's .303 rifle was missing. They also uncovered a bunker, which was being used to conceal a drug crop of 25 marijuana plants.
Police speculate that Stuart murdered his family before going to work. However, Meredith spoke to her sister on the phone at 8pm, one hour before Stuart started his shift, she gave no indication anything was wrong. During their investigations, it was revealed that gas bottles had been set around the house, but these failed to explode. Police believe Stuart returned home after his night shift and used other accelerants around the house to set the fire, before fleeing to dump his car.
Pearce was believed to have been sheltered by friends after he disappeared, possibly in his hometown of Mt. Gambier, 450 km/280 miles south-east of Adelaide. He was spotted several times in 1991 by locals who knew him, but the most recent unconfirmed sighting was in June 1997, at Knox Shopping Mall in Melbourne.
But could Stuart himself have been a victim? There are a lot of unanswered questions, such as why would Stuart murder all of his children except one? In 2002, his surviving son Matthew told The Adelaide Advertiser that he believed his father to be innocent bu
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