Juanita Nielsen - Coroners Inquest - Suspects

Suspects

Although it has never been established who killed Nielsen, there are several major suspects in the conspiracy to silence her.

• Frank Theeman, the 'Victoria Point' developer, was considered by a number of journalists to be the prime suspect in the conspiracy to silence Nielsen. The costly delays to his development offer a highly plausible motive for Theeman wanting to get Nielsen 'out of the way', although no direct evidence has been uncovered conclusively linking Theeman to the presumed murder.

• Abe Saffron, who owned and operated several 'businesses' in Kings Cross, had numerous circumstantial connections with the case. Throughout his life Saffron (often dubbed "the Boss of the Cross" or "Mr Sin") was accused of having masterminded a wide range of criminal activities including gambling, prostitution, drug dealing and "sly grog" sales, and to have co-ordinated a network of bribery and official corruption that (according to his son Alan) included former New South Wales Premier Robert Askin and Police Commissioner Norman Allan. Although no evidence has yet surfaced to reliably link Saffron to Nielsen's disappearance, there are significant circumstantial connections—Saffron owned the Carousel club, where Nielsen was last seen, Saffron associate (and Carousel manager) Jim Anderson reportedly borrowed large sums from Frank Theeman, and Alan Saffron's 2008 book about his father claims that Theeman was one of several prominent Sydney business identities to whom Saffron lent money through a loan sharking operation, a claim which links to earlier reports that Theeman had tried to borrow money from Saffron to cover his 'loans' to Jim Anderson. Also, as well as her campaign against Theeman's development, Nielsen was also reportedly investigating vice and corruption in Kings Cross.

• James Anderson has long been considered a prime suspect, although he protested his innocence right up until his death in 2003, and the recent book by Alan Saffron supports the allegations that Anderson organised Nielsen's abduction. Like his boss Abe Saffron, Anderson's circumstantial connections to the Nielsen case are numerous: he reportedly borrowed a considerable sum of money from Theeman; he had business links to both Theeman and Theeman's "drug troubled" son, and he was a known associate of the three men charged with conspiring to kidnap Nielsen. Anderson always insisted that he was in Surfers Paradise, Queensland with another person on the day of Nielsen's disappearance, and that he flew there with another man on 4 July and stayed for about three days in a room booked in his wife's name at the Chevron Hotel. However, Loretta Crawford later claimed that Anderson was at his home in the eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse that day and that she spoke to him by telephone. Police did not fully investigate Anderson's alibi, and they only determined that his car, which was left at Sydney Airport, had received two parking tickets. Police reportedly failed to contact the man that Anderson claimed had accompanied him to Surfers Paradise, nor did they verify whether Anderson actually flew there on that day or checked into the hotel.

• Det. Sgt Fred Krahe, the former detective, has been named on several occasions by investigative journalists and experts on the case as Juanita's killer. He was a regular customer at the Venus Room, a nightclub owned by Abe Saffron, who also owned the Carousel Club, and it has been repeatedly alleged that Krahe organised the "heavies" hired by the developers to intimidate stubborn residents and force them out. The 1994 parliamentary Joint Committee identified Anderson and Krahe as significant suspects in Nielsen's disappearance. Alleged hit-man James Bazely named Krahe as the killer of Griffith anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, and it has also been claimed that another allegedly corrupt detective, Supt. Don Fergusson, who was reported to have killed himself with his service pistol in the toilets at police headquarters, had in fact been executed by Krahe.