Police at the scene of the murder at East Maitland, 1960
Maitland’s “double-headless” murders of 1960.
On Saturday, April 23, 1960, Maitland reeled in shock when news broke of a gruesome double murder in a small isolated hut off Turton Road, not far from the East Maitland brickworks. Sydney Shelley, 34, and his 21-year-old wife Elva had been killed and their heads cut off and removed. The couple’s baby was found alive but distressed in a cot in the house. A post-mortem revealed that Elva had been pregnant with a second child at the time of her death. Sydney and Elva Shelley were murdered and decapitated When news of the murders broke,…