According to the BBC, Australian police launched an inquiry after 65 women received used condoms and handwritten notes in the mail.
It was also noted that the letters had been sent to locations all around the east and southeast of Melbourne by an unknown sender. All mail was received within the last three months. The authorities think all the victims are connected and that this was a deliberate attack.
In 1999, all of the women attended Kilbreda College, a private girls’ school in the city. The police think their addresses were taken straight out of a yearbook.
The earliest letter arrived on March 20 and the newest on Monday.
Police added that they were analysing DNA and handwriting with assistance from Kilbreda College.
“We’re keeping an open mind in relation to any relationships to the school or the students, or someone who has no association to the school whatsoever,” detective senior sergeant Grant Lewis said on Wednesday.
“It’s quite possible this yearbook, which had addresses on it, may have been found by someone who was not associated with the school and may have just thought it … (was) a joke to start with and now it has become quite serious.”
“It is believed that most of those who reported the material have received multiple letters, all with the suspected used item included. Officers believe the victims are linked and are part of a targeted attack,” the statement said.
The Herald Sun newspaper of Australia quotes a woman who received one of the letters as stating that she was disturbed by its “very graphic (handwritten) messages” and that she immediately attempted to get in touch with her pals.
“I didn’t sleep the night I received the letter, it really creeped me out,” the woman said.
The police have also requested any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward.
Since some of the parents of the former students received the letters instead of their children who had long since moved out, Lewis said there were also secondary victims in the case.
“Some of these people who are receiving this mail and material are quite old, so it is quite traumatising for them,” he said.
Bree, who declined to give her last name, was one of the victims. She recalled that, before the advent of social media, kids used the yearbook as a means of maintaining friendships.
The letter was opened by her mother.
Bree described her emotions as “quite shocked” and “quite upset.” I had a terrible time relaxing that evening.
“The next day, I heard of another girl who had received the same or a similar type of letter, and then there was another one.”
Bree created a Facebook page where other people who had been in her class at the same time as she reported receiving the same letter.
“It was completely disgusting, not something that you would expect in the mail,” Bree said.
“Some of our parents are quite elderly and some parents are sick and some of the girls are unwell at the moment. It’s just the last thing anybody needed.”
“We can’t think of anybody who has a grudge against us.”
According to a statement released by authorities, this is being investigated as a “targeted attack” in Victoria.
“It is believed that most of those who reported the material have received multiple letters, all with the suspected used item included.”
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