Casefile Revisited: Mr Cruel

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A mummy cries for her little girl who never came back home. Now a family lives in a shattered world straining the family home. Are her cries of help ringing in your ears? Her eyes pleading for release. Do you feel her mounting fears? Cause only you can give relief. Please, Mr Cruel, let her go, safely without harm. Please, Mr Cruel, send her back into her family's arms. Please, Mr Cruel, when you reach deep down inside you and find some good within your soul, let her go back to society, release her from your hold. Please, Mr Cruel, please Mr Cruel, please Mr Cruel.

On Tuesday, December 27, 1988, John Wills was inside his home on Hillcrest Avenue, Ringwood, 23 kilometres east of Melbourne's Central Business District. John was having trouble sleeping, so instead of tossing and turning, he decided to stay up and complete a jigsaw puzzle to relax. His wife Julie was in bed asleep, as were his four young daughters. The Wills family weren't alone that night. There was somebody outside their house watching and waiting.

At 5 a.m., John finally He switched the lights off and went to bed, curling up next to his wife. Thirty minutes later, a man wearing a ski mask and blue overalls broke in through the back door. He walked straight to John and Julie's bedroom. Julie woke to see the man standing over her pointing a gun. She started screaming and cried out to her daughters to run from the house. The man told Julie to shut up and stop screaming. He then pointed the gun at John's temple and asked, Are you going to be a hero? John shook his head, no. The intruder made John and Julie lie face down on their bed, then tied them up with copper wire. He told John that he wanted all of the money in the house. John nodded to the bedside table and the intruder took $35 cash that was located there. He then walked out of the bedroom and headed towards the children's room.

Ten-year-old Sharon Wills, who had been woken by her mother's screams, saw the intruder walk into her room. He spoke to Sharon, calling her by name. He then covered her mouth with masking tape, blindfolded her, and picked her up, carrying her out into the night. About fifteen minutes later, John and Julie managed to cut the copper wire that the intruder had used to tie them up. John ran to his kid's bedroom to find that Sharon was missing. After discovering that the intruder had cut their phone line, John ran next door and yelled for his neighbours to call the police. Then he began frantically searching nearby yards and streets, hoping that Sharon might have managed to escape the intruder, but his search was in vain.

When police arrived, they cordoned off the Wills' house. The major crime squad was instantly alerted and arrived to take charge of the scene. A search of Ringwood and the surrounding suburbs was conducted, but there was no trace of Sharon and no witnesses were found. Residents of Ringwood were shocked by the abduction, telling the media that their suburb was a quiet place where things like that didn't happen. Sharon was described by neighbours as a quiet, well-behaved girl who played several musical instruments. She sang with the Victorian Children's Choir and had made a television appearance with them just weeks earlier. Because the intruder had demanded money and stolen all available cash from the family, it was initially thought that she might have been kidnapped for ransom. But no ransom demand was made. One neighbour remarked to the Age newspaper, Why look for money here? It's not like it's Turak or temples, though, naming some of Melbourne's more affluent suburbs. The police agreed. They were convinced the intruder's primary intention was to abduct Sharon and that he'd tried to conceal that by telling John and Julie he wanted all of the cash in their house.

A description of the intruder was circulated, describing him as a white male who was around 20 years old, wearing blue overalls and a black ski mask. As the first day after Sharon's abduction passed, police told her parents that they had to expect the worst. The officer in charge of the case, Detective Chief Inspector Des Johnson, publicly stated, We're still as much in the dark as we were this morning. The fears are growing all the time. At 11.15pm that night, reports filtered through about a Holden Commodore Vacationer sedan that had been driving erratically in Bayswater, about 8 kilometres south-east of Sharon's home. The car, which was white with three blue stripes painted along the side, was being driven with its headlights off. As the Commodore turned off one road into another, it nearly collided with a second vehicle, whose driver had to swerve and brake to avoid a collision. Anchored over the incident, the other driver followed the Commodore and pulled up alongside it at a nearby red light. They began yelling at the Commodore's driver, a man who was the only person visible inside the car. The Commodore's driver turned his head and inched forward as though anxious to not be seen. When the lights turned green, the Commodore continued straight for a short distance before turning right into Church Street, heading towards Bayswater High School. The other driver didn't manage to take note of the number plate.