Vanessa/Barry Lane
Age 4231 Oct 1997
Snowtown, South Australia (Australia)
Dismembered
TDoR list ref: tdor.info/1997/Vanessa (Barry) Lane
Lane's dismembered body was found by police in a drum in the bank vault in Snowtown, along with the body of Michael Gardiner.
Lane was allegedly murdered by Mark Haydon, Robert Wagner, and John Bunting. Their exact date of death is unknown but they were believed to have been killed in October 1997.
Previously in relationships with Wagner, who he was alleged to have raped, and Trezise, in whose murder he was involved. Lane was strangled in his house by Wagner. Before his death, his toes were squeezed with pliers. His body was wrapped in carpet before being placed in a barrel.
Editor's Note:
According to correspondence received by the site, Lane was reportedly a convicted pedophile who had attempted to abduct at least one child. As such, Lane is one of those individuals who raise huge moral quandaries when running a site like this. Lane appears on historic TDoR memorial lists, and a page was originally added on that basis. Given that, I've no doubt whatsoever that, had we omitted them, someone would eventually write in to remind us to add a page for them.
The fact that a page about what happened to them exists on the site shouldn't be taken to infer any endorsement of their character - only that (in the case of those who died by violence) that they are dead.
In cases where the victim was themselves a killer or abuser, I think the right thing to do is not to pretend that ghastly people like Lane don't exist, but to try to tell the whole story and attempt to do justice to their victims as well.
There is precedent here - for example one of the TDoR 2019 victims (Quelly da Silva) allegedlyt killed a 17 year old trans girl ten years earlier. By all accounts da Silva was a pretty unpleasant individual (at least back in 2009), and yet what ultimately happened to her was still both horrific and wrong.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-victims-20030909-gdwb7m.html
https://www.ranker.com/list/snowtown-murders-facts/laura-allan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowtown_murders
http://murderpedia.org/male.B/b/bunting-john-justin.htm
http://murderpedia.org/male.W/w/wagner-robert-joe-photos.htm
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0
