MORNINGTON MONSTER FAMILY KILLER.John Sharpe met New Zealand-born Anna Kemp when they worked together at a Bank. They married in October 1994.In November 2003, when Gracie was about 15 months old, Anna became pregnant again. John later told police investigators that this pregnancy came as a surprise to him. John apparently decided that he did not want another child. One child was enough of a burden in his mind, and he began to resent Anna and the unborn child.

Murders

On 23 March 2004, John and Anna argued before going to bed. Anna quickly fell asleep while John lay brooding over the argument and the state of his marriage. John retrieved the speargun from the backyard garage. Returning, He fired the spear from a distance of a few centimetres into Anna’s left temple. Noticing Anna was still breathing, John fired a second spear into her head, killing her. He then covered the body in towels and went downstairs to sleep on a sofa bed.

REMOVING THE SPEAR

The next day John attempted to remove the spears but failed. He removed only the shafts by unscrewing them from the heads. That same day, John took Gracie to, and then collected her from, her childcare centre. He later buried Anna in a shallow grave in their backyard. Sometime after Annas death, he returned to the sports store and purchased another spear. He would later use that spear to kill Gracie.This was described at his sentencing hearing as being "circumstances of unspeakable callousness".

In the following days, John would attend Gracie's childcare centre. He advised that Anna had left him and that Anna would no longer be attending. Also telephoned Anna's mother in New Zealand. He told her that Anna had left him for the man she had an extramarital affair with. He claimed he did not know her current whereabouts but would return in a few days to collect Gracie.

KILLING HIS DAUGHTER

On 27 March, John put his daughter Gracie to bed in her cot and then drank several glasses of whiskey and Coke to "numb his senses." He retrieved the speargun from the garage, loaded it with the newly acquired spear, and fired at Gracie’s head, penetrating her skull. John retrieved the two spear shafts he had earlier removed from his wife's head and returned to the bed with his child wounded and screaming. He fired both into Gracie's head, but she was still alive, so he withdrew one spear and fired it again, finally killing her. He returned to her bedroom the next morning and pulled the spears from her head.

John then wrapped her body in garbage bags and a tarpaulin. Finally, he disposed of her body at the local refuse transfer station. At the same time, he discarded the speargun, the spears and some of Gracie's clothes and toys.

AFTERMATH

On 29 March 2004, John visited a local hardware store, where he purchased a roll of duct tape, two tarpaulins, and an electric chainsaw. The following day, he exhumed Anna and cut her into three pieces. He then wrapped the remains in a tarpaulin and disposed of them, along with the chainsaw, in waste collection bins at the Local Refuse Transfer Station. On the same day, he sent a forged e-mail to Anna’s family in New Zealand to create the impression she was alive and well.

Rather than comfort the family, his e-mail raised further concerns, and Anna’s mother reported her disappearance to police in Dunedin, New Zealand. John later told police that Anna had moved to the nearby Melbourne suburb of Chelsea with their daughter and denied any knowledge of or involvement in her disappearance. He also arranged for flowers in Anna's name to be delivered to h...