Murder she wrote: Debi Marshall's story
True crime author Debi Marshall didn’t plan on spending her life writing about serial killers and investigating some of Australia’s most brutal unsolved crimes, then the man she loved was murdered.
"To go through the grief of being with somebody who’s been murdered, it leaves a terrible, terrible impact on people," Debi Marshall said.
"When people would often say to me, 'You don’t understand what it is like to have someone murdered', you could never understand, and I would say, 'Yes I do understand. I perfectly understand'."
In her exclusive interview with Mike Willesee, Debi revealed how she launched her own investigation into the 1992 murder of Ron Jarvis and tracked down the man she considered the prime suspect — Stephen Standage.
She knew Standage and Jarvis were involved in growing marijuana together and, before he went missing, her partner confided that Standage owed him money.
"He kept that part of his life very, very private from me. He knew that I was then and remained very anti-drugs. And he didn’t want me to know about it. I stumbled on the knowledge by accident and it caused quite some problems with us."
She tracked him down at a Tasmanian East Coast hotel and even when he threatened her life, Debi was determined to find a way to connect him to the murder.
"He was not happy at all that I had found him," Marshall said.
Unfortunately, she had to wait 22 years.
"It actually sends people quite mad, the grief. Ron’s mum was such a lovely woman. I’d go and visit her when he disappeared. It was awful for her. She was such a strong woman but it just broke her, completely broke her."
After a second murder 14 years later in which John Lewis Thorn was shot in the back of the head, police found DNA and devised a sting to pin the murders on Standage.
John Thorn was found, like Ron Jarvis, dumped in the bush and covered in branches.
Tragically, it was his son Adam who made the grisly discovery.
"I was sitting in his lounge room and, I don’t believe in afterlife or anything like that but I just, I felt this presence behind me," Adam Thorn said.
"It was real and it was basically saying, “you have to look harder, you will find me”.
The next day, Adam found his dad’s body in rugged bushland, a few kilometres from home.
"It’s an image that’s etched in my head and it’ll be there forever and no matter how hard I try I can’t get rid of it."
The murder also raised chilling questions for Debi Marshall who immediately suspected Ron's killer.
Debi’s intuition was right, Steven Standage not only lived in the area but he was John Thorn’s neighbor. They were even involved in a marijuana business together.
Police had the evidence linking Standage to the scene but they needed an admission to charge him. They devised a 'Mr Big Sting' in which Victorian undercover police played the role of well-connected gangsters who wanted to hire Standage but first needed to make sure any links to past crimes had been cleared up.
The recorded conversations gave police what they needed to charge Standage and, more than two decades after Ron Jarvis went missing and 14 years after John Thorn was killed, he was put on trial for both murders.
Standage, now 62, was sentenced to 48 years for the murders of John Thorn and Ron Jarvis.
Adam Thorn began crying when the jury found Standage guilty but Standage did not react.
Debi Marshall said it was an immediate relief, as if a huge weight has been lifted.
"I have no memory of this but apparently I yelled out 'YES!' And I was told by the judge to please quiet down."
"I felt free and emancipated. And I started singing again for really the first time in years. And I just, I still feel like singing."
Stephen Roy Standage has since lodged an appeal against his conviction for the murders of Ronald Jarvis in 1992 and John Thorn in 2006.
About Debi Marshall
Sunday Night employs Debi for her vast experience as an investigative journalist, re-examining cold cases of murder and mayhem across Australia.
Those of us who work closely with Debi were shocked to learn of this dark chapter in her own life, the murder of her partner Ron. This harrowing experience has compelled Debi to offer support and investigation to others who've
suffered horrific crimes in years past.
She became the author of a series of compelling true crime books, detailing the determination of those left behind to deal with crimes of murder and mayhem:
Her 2006 book Justice in Jeopardy tells the harrowing tale of 17-month old Deidre Kennedy in Queensland, and how her killer
escaped a murder prosecution because he'd been acquitted once before new evidence came to light.
The Devil's Garden tells the story of the Claremont killings in Perth.
Lambs to the Slaughter is Debi's gripping account of the murders involving Victorian criminal Derek Percy. Debi's work on this
case formed the basis of a major Sunday Night investigation.
Killing for Pleasure is Debi's forensic examination of the "bodies in barrels" Snowtown murders in South Australia.
The Family Court Murders is Debi's detailed re-examination of the shootings and bombings in Sydney from 1980 which left several dead and many injured. Debi's book expanded on a major investigation of this cold case by the Sunday Night
team.
Beyond true crime, Debi also authored The House of Hancock: The Rise and Rise of Gina Rinehart. This is Debi's examination of the internecine wars of the descendants of the eccentric Western Australian mining magnate, Lang Hancock.