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Melbourne’s notorious Mr Cruel, the man who abducted young girls from their homes and allegedly killed Templestowe schoolgirl Karmein Chan, was likely to be a serial burglar who became addicted to kidnapping children, a team of US crime profilers have found.

They believe the offender has links to Edgars Creek in Thomastown where Karmein’s body was eventually found, and may have been a volunteer in community beautification projects of the area.

On the night of April 13, 1991 Karmein Chan, 13, was abducted from her family’s sprawling 18-room home that was protected by a two-metre fence and electric gates.

Her parents, John and Phyllis Chan, were not there that night; they were at the family business, a Chinese restaurant in Main Road, Lower Plenty.

Karmein read to her sisters, aged seven and nine, before they watched a documentary about Marilyn Monroe in Karmein’s bedroom. About 9pm the two eldest girls headed for the kitchen to make a snack. In the hallway was a man wearing a green-grey tracksuit and a dark balaclava, and holding a silver knife. He kidnapped Karmein, leaving the younger sisters unharmed.

That was the last time she was seen.

Her body was found a year later by a man walking his dog at Edgars Creek. She had been shot three times in the head, execution-style, and buried in a shallow grave.

Crime profiler John Kelly has examined the case of Mr Cruel.

Police believe the killer was Mr Cruel, who was responsible for at least three other attacks from 1987 to 1991.

In the three previous cases the victims had been released.

A team of profiler John Kelly, former American homicide investigator Frank Adamson, psychiatrist Dr Ed Merski and long-time probation officer Pamela Bogart from STALK Inc (System To Apprehend Lethal Killers) has reviewed the case and provided a new profile of the killer.

Kelly says Mr Cruel was a burglar who escalated to abducting girls. “It is an addiction. You build a tolerance and have to up the game to get the thrill.”

In his first case he tied up the parents but did not remove his victim from the family home, in the second he abducted his victim and kept her for 18 hours and in the third time it was for 50 hours.

“He is a serial thief........

© The Age