In June 1998 two men died within two weeks of each other in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, south of Sydney. David O'Hearn, 59, was killed on June 12 in Albion Park Rail. Frank Arkell was killed on June 26 in West Wollongong. The two had no known connection. For three months the newspapers speculated that one person might be responsible for both deaths, and the answer arrived on the night of September 30, 1998, when a 19-year-old from Albion Park Rail named Mark Valera walked into Wollongong Police Station.
In August 2000 a jury in the Supreme Court of New South Wales found him guilty of both murders. On December 21, 2000, Justice Timothy Studdert sentenced him to life imprisonment. The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed his appeal against the severity of the sentence in April 2002. He is held at Goulburn Correctional Centre, and the sentencing judge said there was no prospect of parole.
Valera was born Mark Van Krevel and changed his surname before his trial. In June 1998 he was 19, unemployed and living in Albion Park Rail. Reports describe a young man with no earlier contact with police.
His family history became the center of the defense at trial. He said his father had abused him as a child, and the defense argued that this lay behind the killings. Justice Studdert rejected those claims. Psychologists who worked with police during the investigation reported that Valera described moments of dissociation and an interest in the occult, according to the historian Erik Eklund's account of the case. The Southern Highland News reported that police found a list of about 40 names among his possessions, and the Illawarra Mercury reported that his father's name was on it.
David O'Hearn was 59 and lived in Albion Park Rail. Eklund describes him as a single man. He was killed on June 12, 1998.
The Southern Highland News account says police found no connection between the two men and no sign of preparation for either killing. Eklund states plainly that O'Hearn and Arkell had no association with each other and that press speculation tying the two deaths together on the basis of their circumstances was unfounded. The defense later claimed that Valera had known both men before. Justice Studdert rejected that claim, and the physical evidence did not support it.
Frank Arkell was born in 1929. He was a well-known figure across Wollongong. The Illawarra Mercury reported that he had been acquitted in criminal proceedings about six months before he was killed, and Eklund writes in a later chapter that his death ended further proceedings against him before they were resolved.
He died on Friday, June 26, 1998, in West Wollongong. The Illawarra Mercury published a special edition on the killing on June 29.
Police kept every line of inquiry open in the weeks after Arkell's death, including revenge by people who had been harmed as children.
The newspapers linked the two killings from the start and spoke of a possible serial offender. A commentator's opinion piece published on June 30 attributed the deaths to revenge killings; Eklund says that reading was wrong. Valera himself was interviewed by police during the inquiry as a person of interest, but he was not arrested or charged at that stage.
On the night of September 30, 1998, Valera went to Wollongong Police Station and gave himself up. He spoke to detectives into the early hours of October 1 and admitted both killings. Eklund writes that on the evening he surrendered he told police he had targeted Arkell because of what he believed Arkell had done to children, a belief he said he took from media reports. The ABC reported in 2018 that he told police he "had it in my mind that I wanted to kill someone that day" and that he "was really angry."
Justice Studdert later described him as lucid and cooperative during the interviews. He was charged in October 1998.
The case reached the courts in late 1999 and went to trial in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2000, before Justice Studdert and a jury. According to the Southern Highland News, Valera pleaded not guilty to murder and guilty to manslaughter, and the Crown did not accept the manslaughter plea at the start of the trial.
The defense relied on two points. The first was the account of childhood abuse by his father, which was said to have left him dissociated and not fully in control. The second was the claim that he had known both men. The jury was asked to consider whether his capacity was substantially impaired, and Eklund records that it rejected that defense in the case of each killing. The Southern Highland News reported that the jury took three hours to return its verdicts. Illawarra Mercury reporting in 2023 gives the date of the guilty verdict as August 8, 2000. The jury found him guilty of the murder of David O'Hearn and of the murder of Frank Arkell.
Justice Studdert sentenced Valera on December 21, 2000 (R v Valera [2000] NSWSC 1220). Eklund quotes the judge as saying he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Valera "conducted the attack with intent to kill." The judge found that the accused "sought to explain, and indeed to justify, his attack" on the basis of a judgment he had formed of his victim, that he had shown no remorse during his testimony or in his demeanor at trial, and that there was "a complete absence of any facts such as might mitigate the seriousness of either crime."
The Southern Highland News reports that the judge said he was uneasy about sentencing a 21-year-old to life but that the brutality of the crimes and the lack of remorse left no alternative. The Public Defenders' sentencing table lists the sentence as life for two counts of murder, recording the judge's view that each murder fell within the worst category of offense and that the totality of the offending made the case for life even stronger.
Accounts differ on how the two terms were structured. Eklund describes two concurrent life sentences with no prospect of parole; the ABC, in 2018 and again in 2024, describes two consecutive life sentences. Either way, each term is life imprisonment.
Valera appealed against the severity of his sentence. On April 12, 2002, the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the appeal (R v Valera [2002] NSWCCA 50). The Southern Highland News reports that Justice Tony Meagher, in dismissing it, said Valera may have received a lenient sentence. An application to the High Court of Australia for special leave to appeal is not on record.
Valera's father was killed in Albion Park on August 18, 2000, about ten days after the guilty verdict and before the sentencing. Schreiber, Valera's best friend, was arrested the next day. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in December 2001; he was released on parole in August 2012, and the parole was revoked about three months later.
Valera's sister, Belinda Van Krevel, was also charged. Her first trial was aborted in July 2002. She later admitted that she had asked Schreiber to kill their father and pleaded guilty in early 2003 to soliciting murder. On April 4, 2003, Justice Barr sentenced her to six years in prison with a non-parole period of four years. She was released in May 2007. She was later convicted of unrelated offenses, and in February 2024 a judge sentenced her to six years with a non-parole period of four years for an offense against a partner in Wollongong in March 2023.
In June 2018 the ABC reported that Valera was serving his sentences at Goulburn Correctional Centre, and the ABC repeated that in February 2024. No parole is available to him under the sentencing judge's order.
Proven by jury verdict, final after the dismissal of the appeal against sentence: the murders of David O'Hearn on June 12, 1998 and Frank Arkell on June 26, 1998.
Rejected by the trial court: that Valera knew either man before the killings, and the account of abuse he gave in his defense. The jury also rejected the defense of substantial impairment for each killing.
Not established: any link between O'Hearn and Arkell. Eklund states that none existed.
Details that vary between sources: whether the two life terms run concurrently or consecutively differs between Eklund and the ABC. The age of Arkell differs between the ABC (62), the Public Defenders' table (68) and Eklund's years of birth and death (1929 and 1998). The sentence handed to Schreiber is reported as 16 years by the ABC in 2003 and the Illawarra Mercury, but as life by the ABC in 2018.
June 12, 1998: David O'Hearn, 59, is killed in Albion Park Rail.
June 26, 1998: Frank Arkell is killed in West Wollongong.
June 30, 1998: A newspaper commentary attributes the deaths to revenge killings; the claim is later found to be wrong.
Before September 1998: Valera is interviewed as a person of interest and is neither arrested nor charged.
September 30, 1998: Valera, 19, surrenders at Wollongong Police Station.
October 1, 1998: He admits both killings in interviews into the early hours.
October 1998: He is charged.
Late 1999: The case reaches the courts.
August 8, 2000: A jury in the Supreme Court of New South Wales finds him guilty of both murders.
August 18, 2000: His father is killed at Albion Park.
December 21, 2000: Justice Studdert sentences him to life imprisonment.
December 2001: His friend Keith Schreiber is sentenced to 16 years.
April 12, 2002: The Court of Criminal Appeal dismisses his appeal against sentence.
April 4, 2003: His sister is sentenced to six years for soliciting murder.
June 2018 and February 2024: The ABC reports him serving his sentence at Goulburn.