Greenough Family Massacre
A crime too gruesome to unseal
31-year-old single mother Karen MacKenzie and her three children, 16-year-old Daniel, 7-year-old Amara, and 5-year-old Katrina were murdered at their property in a remote area of Greenough, Western Australia on February 21, 1993. The entire family had been murdered by an acquaintance of Karen’s who worked as a farmhand — William Patrick “Bill” Mitchell.
It is considered one of the worst crimes ever committed in Western Australia. Details of the murders were even withheld from the public because they were determined to be far too gruesome. In fact, it was so horrific that people in the area were calling for a return of the death penalty.
On the day the murders were committed, Mitchell had spent most of the day getting high off marijuana, combined with alcohol and amphetamines. He then drove out to the MacKenzie property. Daniel heard the sound of the car and went out to see who was arriving. Mitchell met him with an ax, killing him with it before heading inside the house.
Inside, he found Karen asleep in the living room. He sexually assaulted her, killed her with the ax, and then sexually assaulted her again post mortem. Finally, he turned his attention to Amara and Katrina, who were asleep in their bedrooms, sexually assaulting Amara and killing both girls.
