The Truro murders is the name given to a series of murders uncovered with the discovery in 1978 and 1979 of the remains of two young women in bushland east of the town of Truro in South Australia. After police searches, the remains of seven women were discovered in total: five at Truro, one at Wingfield, and one at Port Gawler. The women had been murdered over a two-month period in 1976–1977.

Discovery

On 25 April 1978, William "Bill" Thomas and Valda Thomas found what they thought was the bone from the leg of a cow whilst mushrooming in bushland beside Swamp Road near the South Australian town of Truro located about 70 km northeast of Adelaide. Valda had concerns about the find and two days later convinced her husband to have another look. Upon closer inspection, they noted that the bone had a shoe attached; inside the shoe was human skin and painted toenails. Clothes, blood stains, and more bones were found nearby. The remains were later identified as those of Veronica Knight, an 18-year-old girl who had vanished from an Adelaide street around Christmas of 1976. The lack of an obvious cause of death along with the location led to a belief that Knight may have gotten lost and died of thirst so the death was not considered suspicious. Almost one year later, on 15 April 1979, police discovered the skeletal remains of 16-year-old Sylvia Pittman, about 1 km from where Veronica's remains had been located. Pittman had disappeared around the same time as Knight.