Elizabeth Kenyon was everything Christopher Wilder had no control over. This was a man who investigators believe was also responsible for the infamous Wanda Beach murders in Sydney years earlier.
At 23, the stunning special education teacher, cheerleading coach and part-time model from New York had briefly dated the wealthy businessman before turning down his absurdly premature marriage proposal.
She trusted her instincts. She walked away.
But rejection was something Wilder never forgave.
Eight days after 21-year-old Rosario Gonzalez disappeared during the Miami Grand Prix, Beth disappeared. Her family knew immediately that something was catastrophically wrong. And they quickly found out who they thought was responsible.
A Sydney woman has since come forward with new information about the infamous serial killer, adding a new layer to the case. Just 60 minutes after an exclusive story about the podcast’s launch went live on news.com.au, true crime investigators received their first new lead on Sydney’s most infamous unsolved double murder.
Investigator Andy Byrne said the woman contacted the podcast’s tip line to reveal that her mother, who was 15 years old at the time of the 1965 Wanda Beach murders, was molested several times in the Top Ryde shopping center by Wilder, who was 19 at the time.
The shopping center was just a five-minute drive from Wilder’s family home in East Ryde.
“He kept trying to get her to come with him to Wanda Beach,” the woman’s daughter revealed.
Back in the US, Beth’s panicked parents hired Miami private investigator Ken Whittaker. Within 48 hours of the investigation, Whittaker was convinced that Beth was Wilder’s last victim.
She had met Wilder at the Miss Florida USA pageant, where she placed fourth.
According to Whittaker, the evidence was damning. The timeline was clear. The connection was unmistakable.
He urged Miami police to immediately arrest Wilder for questioning.
But they refused, rejecting Whittaker’s evidence and accusing the private investigator of contaminating the crime scene and compromising potential evidence.
And meanwhile, Christopher Wilder kept hunting.
“She had a habit of being noticed immediately when she walked into a room,” Beth’s brother Tim told Australia’s number one true crime podcast Catching Evil.
“Her smile can light up anyone’s day.”
Researcher and podcast co-host Andy Byrne told news.com.au that Beth’s loved ones watched in horror as the “bureaucracy” allowed the man they believed killed their daughter to remain free.
“Whittaker was furious that critical evidence he had obtained was being ignored. He had been a police officer himself and his father ran the FBI in Miami for J. Edgar Hoover,” Byrne said.
“He knew what he was looking at. And he knew that every hour of inactivity gave Wilder more time to kill.”
But the police refused to budge. “They say Whittaker has contaminated the investigation. Prematurely involving Wilder could jeopardize the case.”
Co-host Mark Lewellyn said one question haunts everyone involved: How many lives could have been saved if someone had acted sooner?
“The dysfunction wasn’t personal – it was systemic. South Florida in 1984 was a powder keg of corruption, violence and chaos,” he said.
“Warring drug cartels controlled entire neighborhoods. Police forces were riddled with scandals. In this toxic environment, a serial killer who targeted beautiful young women was able to slip through the cracks.
“Especially when he looked like Christopher Wilder: rich, successful, white, respectable. The kind of man who was instinctively dismissed as a suspect because such men didn’t commit these kinds of crimes.”
As Whittaker and police fought, the investigation fell apart. Evidence was not examined. Witnesses were not interviewed. Wilder’s movements were not followed.
Beth’s family called for action. They provided information and begged the police to look into the man who proposed marriage after a few dates – the red flag was so obvious that an immediate investigation should have taken place.
But nothing happened.
“And somewhere out there, Christopher Wilder was already hunting for his next victim,” Byrne said.
The podcast series shows that Wilder regularly traveled to New York and has been linked to several murders and disappearances of young women. He picked some of them up in Florida and promised them a modeling career in New York.
Their bodies were discovered in or near the water not far from Lockport, where Beth’s family owned and continues to own a string of convenience stores.
Byrne says the team also interviewed two women who Wilder approached in the next town and showed them Beth’s portfolio.
They say in the interview: “when he approached us, he was on the hunt for his next victim.”
DETECTIVE V PRIVATE EYE
Ray Nazario, Miami-Dade homicide detective:
“He ran, you know, and I didn’t like that because the Whittakers shouldn’t have said what they did. Hey, this is a suspect and they just went ahead and did everything and boom, I mean, they scared the guy, you know?”
Now keep in mind that I am currently working on a missing persons case, with the suspicion that there may be foul play.
You know, I’m stubborn as hell. If I don’t see it myself, I can’t tell you anything. I don’t even like to speculate. I had an old homicide sergeant who said, “You can have as many suspects as you want. But you spread yourself like horse manure.” He said, ‘Be sure. Don’t go, this man is a suspect. Keep your cards close to your chest.’
So now I’m thinking: here’s a young girl, a beautiful young girl, at the airport. Did she get there with some friend and just leave? You think about all these things.
Beth’s family and Whittaker are not claiming that Nazario was negligent or lazy, but that police were too slow to respond to the information he received.
Miami private investigator Ken Whittaker:
“I called Ray Nazario, the officer who handled the Kenyon case, and he said, Ken, there’s no damn evidence of foul play, what are you doing. I said I’m telling you I have an eyewitness. I’m not telling you how to do your job, you’ve been on the job for twenty years and I was only in it a few years, but I’m telling you I did enough investigation, picked him up for a probation violation and then say tell me about it Beth Kenyon. That’s the way you bring him in.”
Lewellyn and Byrne are convinced that Wilder is responsible for the deaths of 15-year-old Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock on Sydney’s Wanda Beach in 1965. The series delves into the ‘irrefutable evidence’.
Episode five of Catching Evil is available from Tuesday.
Anyone who thinks they may have come across Wilder or has any information is urged to contact info@changingevil.com
Catching Evil is available on Apple.com and Spotify.
