How 3 clues exposed guilty conscience of Speargun Killer who shot wife and daughter before dumping bodies in bin

THREE clues exposed the guilty conscience of John Sharpe, who shot his wife and daughter with a speargun before dumping their bodies at a rubbish tip.

Sharpe's wife Anna, 41, and baby daughter Gracie disappeared from Melbourne, Australia in 2004.

Clues revealed the guilty conscience of John Sharpe Sharpe's blinking gave him away, a body language expert said

After their disappearance, Sharpe, then 37, gave several interviews on national TV appealing for them to come back.

He also claimed she had left him for another man.

However, the truth was that Sharpe had shot them both dead with a speargun before dumping their bodies at a rubbish tip.

A body language expert has pinpointed the moment that Sharpe gave himself away as the killer during his TV appearances - by "juggling" his eyebrows, contorting his face and faking concern.

Body language expert Dr Cliff Lansley told discovery+'s Faking It: "This is a very, very poor attempt at portraying concern and sadness, and therefore we have got to doubt the integrity of his message.

“First, we get this prolonged eyeblink. It’s a good part of a second, maybe just a little bit more. This is a distancing signal.

“We’ve got this little juggling going on between the brows, which is highly unusual. He’s squirming and trying to form his upper face, probably into a sad pose.

“When we link up with the face overall, the squirming is accompanied not just in the eyes but in the mouth where we get the mouth raising, almost like a moving up of the lips into a growl.

"So, he’s making contortions of muscles on his face to try and portray some form of concern, and it’s not working.”

Dr Lansley added that Sharpe's use of a tissue was a "prop" which he used to try and convince the public he was upset at his wife and child's disappearance.

The body language expert said: "There’s no moisture on his nose, no tears on his face. He then brings us this pained expression on his brows to try and show concern, which doesn’t fool any of us.

"He keeps shaking in his head beyond the words. This is called a convincing tactic.

"When you shake your head back and forwards and say ‘I haven’t done it,’ that’s okay.

"But if you prolong that into multiple shakes, that is characteristic of deception because people do that to convince you that it’s true. It’s a convincing tactic that we rarely see with truth tellers."

KILLER CAUGHT

Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes said: "John Sharpe was described a quiet man, a shy man.

"Another way of looking at this was that he was actually quite socially inept. He didn’t have much in the way of communication skills, he didn’t have a lot of emotional intelligence."

Despite his public denials, Sharpe remained the number one suspect.

After gathering evidence against him, Sharpe was arrested and eventually confessed to the brutal slayings.

Sharpe had bought a speargun at a fishing shop and practiced using it.

After his wife Anna had gone to bed, he crawled up the stairs, went into the bedroom and coldly shot her in the head while the couple's 20-month-old daughter lay asleep in her bed.

Days later, he killed his daughter as well - after taking her back to the fishing shop and buying another spearhead, the same one he would later use to murder her.

The killer then dumped the bodies in a rubbish tip.

He was convicted of both murders and jailed for life, with a minimum term of 33 years behind bars.

John Sharpe with wife AnnaCredit: . Sharpe killed Anna and daughter GracieCredit: . Sharpe used a tissue as a 'prop' to show his fake emotion

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