Dismembered body case baffles Aust, police

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 6

Dismembered body case baffles Aust, police

NZPA-AAP Melbourne The police are baffled by the murder of a Melbourne insurance broker, Mr John Pinakos, whose dismembered body was found in two shallow graves at Rye, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula. The police have recovered his head, torso, arms, hands and feet, along with a white long-sleeved striped shirt, a grey tie and a pair of underpants. Mr Pinakos, aged 30, had an arrow through the heart when his body was discovered on Tuesday. His legs are still missing. Senior Sergeant Sal Perna, of the

homicide squad, said Mr Pinakos’s shirt was not found on the body and it was possible he had been forced to strip before he was shot. Mr Pinakos was last heard of on April 24, when he telephoned a business associate in Melbourne. He had been reported missing by his family on April 21, after apparently planning to meet a fellow insurance broker, Ronald Victor Lucas, aged 33, of Reservoir. Both were sought by the police and Lucas was detained in Adelaide on June 7. He was charged in Melbourne Magistrate’s Court on June 9 with the theft of $30,000 worth of jewellery.