Bloodstained house of horrors for sale

READER DISCRETION ADVISED: PL is triggered by the announcement of a house sale in Aberdeen

The killer and her victim.

WARNING: STORY CONTAINS CONFRONTING CRIME SCENE DETAILS

Property prices are rising at the rate of about 10% a year in Aberdeen, NSW, and with the median price for a 3-bedroom home over $500,000, the solid brick property at 84 St Andrews St is a bargain at $380,000.

Sure, it needs a little bit of work, but you can see from the agent’s description that this is no slum:

3 bedrooms, all with built-in robes. The bathroom has a shower and bath, separate toilet and vanity. The lounge has a combustion fire and reverse cycle air conditioning and flows to the dining and kitchen. There is a sliding door to the back yard which is flat with 2 garden sheds and plenty of room to extend or build a new shed. Homes at this price are becoming rare so don't wait too long for an inspection. Potential rental income once freshened up would be approx $460pw.

I wonder if it is the same air conditioner. The same bath.

I know as an undeniable fact that it is the same corridor, the same kitchen, the same doorway from the kitchen where the macabre curtain hung that morning, the same dining room where the table was set, the same living room where the corpse was abused.

The police reports had mentioned the air conditioner being on when they visited that morning. Why that relatively unremarkable fact attracted my attention, I am not sure, but it made its way into the red ink write-off we’d pulled together for the back of a book I wrote about the crime committed inside that house.

The back cover of Blood Stain.

Everybody in Aberdeen knows this house and its reputation. Those innocents perusing the property market from out of town are given some warning in the first line of the agent’s listing: “This home is priced accordingly due to its history.”