Unsolved High Country Disappearance of Barwon Prison Boss David Prideaux

Apr 2, 2013
10,969
16,327
AFL Club
Collingwood
With the last weird vanishing of a couple in the same region, some in the media are wondering if there might be a serial killer picking people off.

Saw an article speculating. Possible but doubt it.
a) Prideaux disapperance a bit too convenient.
b) Not hard to get lost up in the bush and given the area is about the equivalent of say a Wales or small city a body could literally be anywhere.
 
Saw an article speculating. Possible but doubt it.
a) Prideaux disapperance a bit too convenient.
b) Not hard to get lost up in the bush and given the area is about the equivalent of say a Wales or small city a body could literally be anywhere.

Maybe not Prideaux but there's been too many go imo, these are experienced hunters / bushmen and hikers with all the latest gadgets and still they're vanishing without a trace.
 
Apr 2, 2013
10,969
16,327
AFL Club
Collingwood
Maybe not Prideaux but there's been too many go imo, these are experienced hunters / bushmen and hikers with all the latest gadgets and still they're vanishing without a trace.

Maybe. While I do love a good conspiracy theory anyone can slip/fall have an accident and if the tracker is damaged how would they be found? Especially if old

Then again there are a lot of weirdos out that way.
 
Maybe. While I do love a good conspiracy theory anyone can slip/fall have an accident and if the tracker is damaged how would they be found? Especially if old

Then again there are a lot of weirdos out that way.

Nobody's even finding their metal/weaponry, can't track their gadgets. Nothing. Wild dogs aren't bringing out boots or scattering bones, there's nothing.

They found a body couple of days ago too but dumped on the side of a track or something, it wasn't the couple they're looking for.

Here. https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/thre...-disappearances-enter-the-button-man.1239870/
 
Dec 11, 2019
2,310
3,230
Melbourne
AFL Club
Carlton
Other Teams
Chewton Tigers
The above link is an interesting piece for background as the Australian link at the start does not work.
 
Mar 21, 2016
73,845
116,766
Down South Corvus Tristis
AFL Club
Adelaide
Other Teams
Sturt, White Sox
A year or two before I started there'd been a lot of violence between the POWs and the Lebanese. They were all broken up and moved out of mainstream and into higher security units or to other prisons.

The only concept I had of what it was like inside was what you'd see on American prisons. A couple of weeks before I started my training, America's Hardest Prisons started on foxtel and I started to watch it. I stopped watching after the first couple of episodes so that I didn't spook myself.

Once I got in there, I was surprised by how little actually happened. I had a couple of blokes on my course from prisons interstate and they reckon that Barwon was like kindergarten compared to them. There was a few nasty incidents while I was in there but nothing that was continually happening. There actually used to be more frequent incidents happening next door at Margoneet the medium security prison. :confused:.

I used to listen to a few of the older, longer serving officers that had been around since the Pentridge days, telling stories and couldn't understand how anyone would get up and voluntarily go to work in that sort of an environment each day. It was bad enough people used to question how I could work where I did but it paled in comparison to what I'd heard from Pentridge.
I will add this to here

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aH...zAtZWMyZC00ZTVmLTg3OGYtNmYzNjU3MzFlZGE0?ep=14

A new book Code Blue is out detailing some stories of a 30 year veteran

Talks about it on the pod
 

Awakening

Club Legend
Oct 23, 2021
1,654
4,124
AFL Club
West Coast
I live in Victoria and had never heard of this case until the Adam Shand episode. It seems like no one is really talking about it. I don't know if that's because of a lack of new information or what. I can't decide if his occupation has any bearing on his disappearance.
 
I live in Victoria and had never heard of this case until the Adam Shand episode. It seems like no one is really talking about it. I don't know if that's because of a lack of new information or what. I can't decide if his occupation has any bearing on his disappearance.

It's a fascinating case, imo it's a very suspicious disappearance and given his job and the information he was privvy to through a series of underworld killings adds to the distrust in the story that he had an accident or a heart attack or something and died under the scrub.

Alarms went up fairly quickly and people were all over that mountain by next light for weeks. I don't want to be rude but dead bodies smell, the stench is awful. Nobody noticed anything apparently. Then the snow fell and they waited for the thaw, still couldn't find him.
 

Awakening

Club Legend
Oct 23, 2021
1,654
4,124
AFL Club
West Coast
It's a fascinating case, imo it's a very suspicious disappearance and given his job and the information he was privvy to through a series of underworld killings adds to the distrust in the story that he had an accident or a heart attack or something and died under the scrub.

Alarms went up fairly quickly and people were all over that mountain by next light for weeks. I don't want to be rude but dead bodies smell, the stench is awful. Nobody noticed anything apparently. Then the snow fell and they waited for the thaw, still couldn't find him.

Possibly I've watched too much TV, but could he have been placed in some sort of witness protection program?
 
Possibly I've watched too much TV, but could he have been placed in some sort of witness protection program?

That's interesting. Possible and that wife and kids decided not to go with him or he decided it was too much of a burden and to do it alone.

Wow, if so he just might be watching this thread. 👋👋
 
With the arrest of Greg Lynn is there a chance David & Greg knew each other? Both in high level careers, both lived in Melbourne's west, both hunted and camped, both around the same age.

Very interesting! Maybe that's what the hold up with the charges are, this is more complicated than the usual imo.
 

Awakening

Club Legend
Oct 23, 2021
1,654
4,124
AFL Club
West Coast
Very interesting! Maybe that's what the hold up with the charges are, this is more complicated than the usual imo.

David would be 60 now and Lynn is reported as age 55. So 10 years ago, 45.

I wonder about Lynn have a white to blue to beige nissan patrol. I didn't think respraying your car was a common thing to do. I'd guess most people wouldn't do it even once in their lifetime let alone twice.

I buy the altercation scenario. It's just unusual in an altercation that 2 people are killed. Killing one person "accidentally" and hiding the body and evidence is one thing, but to then take out the 2nd person/witness as well seems particularly cold blooded and more consistent with someone who has killed before. But anything's possible I guess.
 
Last edited:

Pies1990

Senior List
Dec 9, 2021
230
503
AFL Club
Collingwood
Robbie Dale any relation to Paul Dale? I'm sure I've seen it suggested somewhere. Not making any inferences, just would be a crazy tangled web if true.

I wondered the same when I first saw the story. I can’t remember how long Paul Dale and Gavin M the other cop got in the slammer. Or how beneficial it would be to them, or other coppers that did deals with Williams who may benefit from David Prideaux being “silenced”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jan 11, 2009
2,185
2,436
melb
AFL Club
Essendon
I wondered the same when I first saw the story. I can’t remember how long Paul Dale and Gavin M the other cop got in the slammer. Or how beneficial it would be to them, or other coppers that did deals with Williams who may benefit from David Prideaux being “silenced”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Dale didn’t get any jail time, carl being killed dropped the murder case against him.
 

Pies1990

Senior List
Dec 9, 2021
230
503
AFL Club
Collingwood
I found it strange that his sister and BIL Dale were dismissive of more searches, and kept the family out of the loop. Plus he waited 6 or so hours to alert authorities.
 
Aug 14, 2011
44,794
16,853
Trafalgar
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
Mclaren Mercedes F1
On now:

Australian Crime Stories


The Hunter


10:10PM - 11:15PM
CC
REPEAT
The 2011 disappearance of prison boss David Prideaux is a mystery that bristles with possibilities. The story that began as a missing person case is now clouded with accusations of adultery, conspiracies and murder.

At the time Prideaux disappeared ABC morning radio host Jon Faine ( a lawyer by trade) regularly returned to the subject for no result as I recall. Your post caused me to revisit the subject & I came upon this link:

It didnt fill in any missing info for me, but it might for someone else.
 
Back