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Killer in the family podcast
A true crime podcast exploring men who kill their families.
Killer in the family podcast
Episode 72 - The Kemp Family
In March 2004, in a quiet suburb of Melbourne, Australia, Anna Kemp and her 20-month-old daughter Gracie were brutally murdered by the very person who should have loved and protected them the most — husband and father, John Sharpe. Armed with a speargun, he shot Anna and Gracie multiple times, killing them in cold blood. Anna was also pregnant with their second child who she had named Francis.
After killing his whole family, Sharpe appeared in the media, tearfully pleading for their return and spinning the lie that Anna had left him, taking Gracie with her. But behind the cameras was a killer, hiding in plain sight. His deception didn’t last and Sharpe was sentenced to 33 years in prison for the calculated, monstrous slaughter of his own family.
This is the story of the Kemp Family.
Information and support
· Samaritans UK Contact Us | Samaritans
· Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA) Home - AAFDA
· Women’s Aid Home - Women's Aid
· National Domestic Abuse Helpline UK 0808 2000 247
· Mental health support USA Mental Health America | Homepage | Mental Health America
· Domestic abuse helpline USA 1.800.799.SAFE Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline
References
Sharpe family murders - Wikipedia
Australian News- john myles sharpe
The Sharpe Family Murders • Morbidology
Our True Crime Podcast: 75. The Mornington Monster: Family Annihilator John Sharpe
Speargun killer jailed for 33 years - ABC News
Mornington Monster: John Sharpe killed Anna Kemp.
Murderer a child molester, says paper - NZ Herald
Credits
Hosted and created by Clare Laxton @ladylaxton
Produced by: Clare Laxton
Killer in the family podcast (buzzsprout.com)
Music from Pixabay.
Killer in the family podcast is a total labour of love. If you'd like to support me please buy me a coffee or tea!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/clarelaxton
Hi there and welcome to Killer in the Family podcast. I'm your host, claire Laxton. Welcome to episode 72 of Killer in the Family, and let's just get straight into it. In March 2004, in a quiet suburb of Melbourne, australia, anna Kemp and her 20-month-old daughter, gracie, were brutally murdered by the very person who should have loved and protected them the most husband and father, john Sharp. Armed with a spear gun, he shot Anna and Gracie multiple times, killing them in cold blood. Anna was also pregnant with their second child, who she had named Frances. After killing his whole family, sharp appeared in the media tearfully pleading for their return and spinning the lie that Anna had left him, taking Gracie with her. But behind the cameras was a killer hiding in plain sight. His deception didn't last and Sharp was arrested and sentenced to 33 years in prison for the calculated, monstrous murder of his own family. This is the story of the Kemp family. This is going to be a really, really tough lesson team. Obviously because it's about the brutal murder of a whole family, but also because of the way that they were killed and how much the perpetrator lied about it.
Speaker 1:As usual, there are there are links to information and support in the episode notes, as well as all my sources. Now let's start by talking about Anna Kemp. Although this case takes place in Australia, anna was actually born in New Zealand in a place called Dunedin. Dunedin is the second most populated city on the South Island of New Zealand, so like second to Christchurch, has a population of around 130,000 and apparently the hills around it are the remnants of an extinct volcano. Now, really frustratingly, there are inconsistent sources about Anna's date of birth. Some sources have said September 1962, some have said 1963. Most reports have said that she was 41 years old when she was killed, which would fit with sort of those dates, but I'm really sad that I couldn't find the exact date, unlike the perpetrator, whose date of birth is clear and on many sources. I do know that Anna had a brother called Gerald and she was brought up Catholic and was said to be a really lovely and devoted friend and mother. According to the Our True Crime podcast episode on this case, anna also had like a great sense of humour and was really fun too.
Speaker 1:Again, there aren't any clear sources on when Anna moved from New Zealand to Australia, but she did and she settled in Mornington, a suburb of Melbourne in Australia. So Mornington is a small town near the coast southeast of Melbourne, has a population of around 25,000 and Melbourne itself is in the Australian state of Victoria and is the second most populated city in Australia behind Sydney. So Anna is in Mornington and working for the Commonwealth Bank, which is where she meets her future husband, john Sharp. Sharp himself was born and raised in Mornington. He was born in February 1967. I could find that date and Anna. So Anna was about four years older than him. John also worked at Commonwealth Bank when he met Anna and apparently they were sort of had a bit of a whirlwind romance and were married within a year. So they got married in October 1994.
Speaker 1:Now John was said to be relatively introverted, quite quiet, a bit of a loner possibly, and very close to his family. And interestingly, the morbidology website said that pretty soon after they were married Anna actually thought that she had made a mistake. She told her brother that she had and he told the website quote she told my mother after, after the honeymoon. I think I've made a mistake. She just carried on with the mistake. Apparently there was, you know, a bit of a lack of passion and love and Sharp and Anne were quite different people, as I'm sure you could tell she was quite outgoing, quite fun, quite you know, funny, and he was very quiet and introverted and Anna did seem to just sort of regret getting married so quickly.
Speaker 1:But they continued their married life, living in Mornington and getting on with their careers for the next few years and in 2002, they welcomed a little girl into their family, gracie. She was born in August 2002 and was actually diagnosed with the condition hip dysplasia. Now this is an abnormality of the hip where, like, the socket doesn't sort of fully cover the ball, so it sort of increases the risk of joint dislocation. And for little Gracie it meant that she had to wear like a corrective harness for the first few months of her life. She apparently had trouble sleeping and often cried I mean, quite understandably she might have been in a lot of pain. And even after she had the harness taken off, gracie still, you know, had to have surgeries and had a quite a lot of medical intervention in her short life. And this, you know, obviously and inevitably maybe placed a strain on an already strained marriage. Sharp was not really wanting to spend time with Gracie that much and he felt that Gracie was a burden and didn't like that. She took Anna away from him Way to be father of the year. Then, though, on the flip side, anna was spending so much time caring for Gracie that it actually had an impact on her own mental health. She was really struggling with anxiety and the strain that her marriage was under as well, and I just really feel for Anna here, parenting a much-loved daughter who needed her and living with mental health issues as well. I am not sure how much Sharp helped her around the house and with parenting either.
Speaker 1:In September 2003, the family moved to a new house in Mornington, near Sharp's parents apparently, and in November that year Anna announced that she was pregnant with their second child, a child that Anna later named Francis. Second child, a child that Anna later named Francis. Now, according to the Our True Crime podcast, sharp was not too happy about having a second child. Although Anna was really excited, one of Anna's friends called Dawn sort of sensed that there was a bit of tension between them after they announced that they were having another baby. Sharp was openly hostile to Anna, which was relatively new for the introverted sort of quiet man. So by early 2004, this sort of normal suburban family who were expecting another child might seem like a happy family on the outside, but nothing is, as it seems, as we know, unbeknownst to anyone else. A year earlier, sharp had gone out and bought a spear gun and an extra spear. Spear gun was usually used for fishing, which is something that Sharp had no interest in at all, but he bought that spear gun and over the next few months he would practice shooting it in the garden.
Speaker 1:On the 21st of March 2004, anna, sharp and Gracie went to Sharp's nephew's birthday party. It was like a picnic party and apparently everyone seemed in good spirits. Nobody noticed any tension between Anna and Sharp at all. The next day would be the last time anyone saw or spoke to 41-year-old Anna Kemp. She took Gracie to daycare and picked her up around noon. She also spoke to her mother back in New Zealand and made arrangements to see her friend Samantha later on that week. And on Thursday that week Samantha actually heard from Sharp which was very unusual as he had never called her before and he tells Samantha that Anna had left him for another man and left him with Gracie, and I can imagine that Samantha was pretty shocked at this.
Speaker 1:Why would Anna leave Gracie? She was such a devoted mother and she had never heard Anna talk about another man. It just really didn't seem to add up here. And it didn't add up for Anna's other friend, dawn, either, as Sharp called her at work that day to tell her the same story. According to the Our True Crime podcast, dawn found this really strange as, again, sharp had never called her and she also didn't know anything about another man. Dawn also knew that Anna would never leave Gracie, and by this point in the week, so towards the end of the week, anna's mother is also getting worried, as she hadn't heard from Anna for a few days and was leaving messages etc. But just not hearing back.
Speaker 1:On the Friday of this week, sharp took Gracie to daycare and when he picked her up he told them that Gracie wouldn't be returning, and I think possibly that this is the last time that anyone saw Gracie alive again. After this, sharpe's story to Anna's family and friends changed. He claimed that Anna had come back and she had taken Gracie and left him for another man and taken Gracie too. And this all feels very suspicious, though right With Anna's friends and her mother getting super concerned that it just did not seem like Anna at all. At the end of the month, anna's mother did receive an email from Anna, but it raised her suspicions further as it didn't quite sound like Anna had written it. She was right, it was actually from Sharp and apparently Anna had also ordered flowers for her mother for her birthday at the end of the month Again something that had been done by Sharp to make Anna look alive to her family and friends.
Speaker 1:Now, at this point Anna's mother, you know, quite rightly called the police. I think she started with the police in New Zealand. First she still lived in New Zealand, but they weren't too concerned and I'm not sure they had the jurisdiction and somehow or sometime the investigation got passed over to police in Victoria. They didn't start investigating until the 20th of May, so two months after anyone had last seen or spoken to Anna or Gracie. Now, during the police investigation, sharp maintained that Anna had run off with another man and had taken Gracie with her. He actually did media interviews calling for her to come back and for information about where she was. During these media interviews he raised suspicion with his use of the past tense when he spoke about Anna and police started looking at him more closely. Police started looking at him more closely. Now it wouldn't be the first time that we've seen family annihilators make appeals in the media to try and pretend that they haven't killed their whole family. Christopher Watts and Scott Peterson are examples that come to mind pretty quickly. Often, if their statements are analysed, you can really catch some of the verbal cues that lead to suspecting that they had committed the murders, and the use of past tense to describe someone is a pretty obvious one.
Speaker 1:On the 22nd of June 2004, sharp was arrested for the murders of Anna and Gracie, and during interviews with the police, he confessed to what he had done, and this is what actually happened during those fateful days in March 2004. This is going to be a really, really tough listen. On the evening of the 23rd of March, anna and Sharp had an argument. Apparently they went to bed, and that is when Sharp decided he was going to kill his wife. He got his spear gun and fired a spear straight into his her head. Oh, I just I cannot imagine what was going through his head here. It's just. This is so awful, and at this point Anna wasn't dead. So Sharp shot another spear at her head and killed her. Sharp shot another spear at her head and killed her. He covered her and then went to sleep the next day he buried her in a shallow grave in the garden. He would then sort of continue family life with Gracie over the next few days, with his wife lying dead outside. I just cannot with this guy. And in these intervening days he also went back to the sporting goods store and bought two more spears for his speargun in what would be the callous and cold calculated planning for the murder of his only child. Four days after he killed his wife, he put his 20-month-old daughter, gracie, to bed, drank some alcohol and then shot her in the head with his spear gun. She wasn't dead and Gracie cried and shouted. He shot another spear into her head and killed her. Honestly, the callousness of this man is is unbelievable. He had clearly planned all of this and I just cannot imagine what he was thinking. It's heartbreaking here. Sharp then took Anna's dead body and cut it into pieces with a chainsaw he'd bought from a local hardware store. He wrapped Anna's remains and put her in a bin at a local station in Mornington. He had already wrapped Gracie's body and put her in the same bin as well.
Speaker 1:After his confession, police conducted an extensive and long search of the landfill site where that bin would have been emptied and they actually found the bodies of both Anna and Gracie. It took 11 days for police and other searchers to search the landfill and to find the bodies of Anna and Gracie. They found Anna first. One searcher, natalie Fraser, who's a missing persons officer with the police, talked about how she felt when she first found parts of Anna's body Quote I put my head in my hands and I just cried. I cried for what Anna endured, for Anna's family, for humanity as a whole, I suppose, but the thought of Gracie nearby. I just cannot imagine what it was like for those teams of searchers who knew that they were looking for not one but two dead bodies, and one being a young child. And I don't want to focus too much on the gruesome aspects of this familiar side, as that's not what we're really here for, but I think it's really important to reflect on the mindset and capacity of a man who can not only kill his wife and child with a spear gun but also callously cut them up and put them in a bin. It really shows to me how much he valued them, and what he thought of them just makes me feel a bit sick, to be honest. And what he thought of them just makes me feel a bit sick, to be honest. Anna and Gracie are now buried in Green Park Cemetery, dunedin, along with a mention of Anna's unborn child, francis.
Speaker 1:After the bodies of Anna and Gracie were found, sharp was brought to the Supreme Court of Victoria where he pleaded guilty to the murders, saving Anna's family and friends the ordeal of a trial. In August 2005, nearly 18 months after he brutally killed Anna and Gracie, sharp was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences with a non-parole period of 33 years. Now that means that he will spend a minimum of 33 years in prison before he is even entitled to be considered for parole, which he hopefully will never get. On his sentencing, the judge said that he'd killed Anna out of resentment and that, quote, gracie was a defenseless child who was your legal and moral responsibility. You killed her simply so that your first crime would not be discovered. Apparently, anna's mother watched the sentencing via video link from New Zealand and just wept and cried as the sentence was handed out and in a move we don't often see, sharp's own mother, valerie, gave a comment after the sentencing. She said, quote John's crimes were horrific and he will serve the sentence, given he has given himself a life sentence. Now in prison, sharp apparently has spent time in protective custody as well, due to threats on his life from other prisoners. They don't take kindly to people that kill children.
Speaker 1:With sharp facing justice for his callous crimes, the communities in australia new zealand started trying to deal with the aftermath of these horrific murders. Anna's family and friends not only had to live with the loss of Anna and Gracie and Anna's unborn child, but also with the knowledge that the person that should have loved and protected them brutally killed them and then tried to damage Anna's reputation by spreading lies about her. It just breaks my heart and, as with so many stories we talk about on the podcast, people wanted to know and think about what could possibly have been the motives of Sharp in killing his whole family. I think there are a range of things that motivated not only his actions, but also his calculated planning of his actions. There was no red mist or just losing it here, but before we go into those, I wanted to flag that there were a few sources that I looked at in my research that talked about the fact that Anna might have discovered that Sharp was sexually abusing Gracie and that was his motive for murdering them both. So if you sort of want to look further into this case, might see some of those stories in in what you look at. And I want to make it clear that in the police investigation they found no evidence that Sharp had sexually abused Gracie Now, and it's thought that these sort of rumours started because there were some sort of historical family letters from members of Sharp's family that talked about how he did actually sexually abuse a girl when he was younger for a couple of years, until he was about 18 years old. Now I couldn't find out any more details about this, but I wanted to flag that it is not thought that sexual abuse was the motive for the murders.
Speaker 1:Instead, as we have heard and talked about before, I believe that Sharp was an escapee, family annihilator. He wanted out of his family. He resented Anna and resented Gracie for the time and attention she demanded. He didn't want another child and resented Anna for being excited about it. He felt trapped in his marriage and family life and basically just wanted out. We talked earlier about how there didn't seem to be a lot of love and passion in their marriage and how much Sharp resented the time that Gracie took and how it took Anna's attention away from him and he was obviously thinking about the murders for a while, because he bought the spear gun more than a year before he killed Anna and Gracie. Now, apparently, sharp told the police that on the night of the murders, anna was getting on his nerves, which is why he decided to kill her that night. But it clearly goes further than that Years of resentment and seeing only murder as a way out.
Speaker 1:While we've discussed what his motives might have been, I think there's something else we need to talk about before we finish this episode. While he may have wanted to escape his family life, I don't think we can ignore the brutal, cold and callous nature of how he did that and what he did after the murders. In trying to cover his tracks, he used a spear gun to kill his wife and child, and their deaths were brutal. Although I think Australia has very strict gun laws, why would a spear gun, which just feels so violent, be your next option? And also, to lie so much about Anna afterwards to me just shows a real disrespect and anger towards her. So maybe he did want to leave his family and saw murder as the only way out, something which we can never understand. I think there was a much deeper anger, and maybe even hatred for his family that came out in how he killed them and what he said about them afterwards. This guy is just a real bag of crap, and it is no wonder that he is Australia's most infamous family annihilator Away from Sharp. This episode is dedicated to Anna Gracie and Anna's unborn child, francis, to the lost potential of their lives and to the love that they brought to their family and friends. We remember them.
Speaker 1:This has been killer in the family podcast, written and produced by me, claire Laxton. I'll be back next week with a new episode. Don't forget to send me any comments or questions to my insta at killer in the family pod or through a text via a link in the episode notes. Do let me know any stories you'd like me to cover as well, and don't forget that you can buy me a coffee if you like the podcast and help. Support is running. The link is in the episode notes and thank you so much to everyone for your support so far. Until then, I've been Claire Laxton. This is killer in the family podcast. Until next time, take care, thank you, thank you.
