The urges that drove serial killer Paul Charles Denyer to murder had been building since age 14 Paul Denyer will now only answer to "Paula" and is being provided cosmetics by jail guards. IN 1993, a "silent alarm" went off in the mind of Paul Charles Denyer, triggering an urge he said had been slowly building in him since the age of 14. By the time he was 17, the violent urges had increased to the stage where the hulking 119kg Denyer began stalking women in the Frankston area. Later Denyer was to confess to killing Elizabeth Anne-Marie Stevens on a dark, rainy night in June 1993 when she hopped off a bus. Seaford mother Debra Fream, 22, and Frankston North schoolgirl Natalie Russell, 17, also died before police arrested Denyer, 21, and he confessed to the killings. One of six children, Denyer was born in Campbelltown, NSW, on April 14, 1972, and moved to Mulgrave with his family in March 1981. He attended Northvale Primary School before going to Clayton Technical School. Sick killer defies order to stop cross-dressing The family later moved to a house in Long St, Langwarrin - several hundred metres from where Elizabeth Stevens was taken. There were several disturbing incidents during Denyer's childhood, including an occasion when he slashed the throats of his younger sister's toy bears. Over the years, Denyer watched a number of violent videos but it was the film Stepfather 2 that made a major impression. Denyer told police he stabbed his victims in the neck because he saw a similar scene in Stepfather 2 and thought it looked "effective." At 17, Denyer began to stalk women in the Frankston-Langwarrin area, but did not approach them. He told police that he was always just "waiting for the sign" - an opportunity to fulfil a fantasy of killing women. Denyer worked as a forklift driver after leaving school before drifting through a series of jobs in the bayside area where the outcome was always the same - he never lasted more than six months and was dismissed each time. Denyer steadily progressed from stalking to actually threatening a woman. Late last year, he went to the Big W supermarket in Karingal Hub and selected a knife from the sporting section and held it to the throat of sales assistant and threatened to kill her before running off. On February 19, armed with a knife, Denyer followed a woman he vaguely knew and later broke into her Seaford flat. Fortunately the girl, her boyfriend and their three-month-old baby were out at the time but a pet cat and two kittens were not so lucky. Denyer went into a blind rage, gutting the mother cat and slashing the throats of two kittens before throwing their mutilated bodies in the bath. With a finger dipped in the cat's blood, he scribbled a threatening message on the wall. Denyer told police he had gone to kill the girl and, when she wasn't home, had killed the cats. On Friday, June 11, Denyer went to his girlfriend's mother's place for dinner. During the night he excused himself and, armed with a knife and a fake handgun he had made himself, walked 3km in pouring rain to Langwarrin. There, 18-year-old VCE student Elizabeth Stevens was getting off a bus alone. She was followed along Paterson Ave and grabbed. A gun was thrust into her side and she was pulled into the front yard of a house to subdue her. Police were told the killer walked along the street with Elizabeth, grabbing her hand at one stage when they passed a couple to make it look as though they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Police were told the killer dragged her into Lloyd Park, an area he knew like the back of his hand, and repeatedly stabbed her in the neck and upper body before slashing her across the chest and upper body. After throwing some branches over Elizabeth, the killer left. Denyer later told police that wet, rainy nights covered the sounds of screams and would wash away any blood or footprints. He told police that every day he was "boiling up" until he got to the stage where he had to strike again. On July 8, young Seaford mother Debra Fream, who had given birth to baby Jake just 12 days before, was at her Kananook Ave home preparing dinner for a mutual friend of both her and her de facto Garry Blair. She popped out to get some milk. As she got out of the car and ran across the street, a man was walking down McCulloch Ave after catching a train from Kananook. He ran to the unlocked car and hid behind the driver's seat until Debra Fream returned. As Ms Fream did a U-turn she saw the man's face in the mirror, panicked and smashed into the side wall of the milk bar. The killer produced a fake gun and ordered Ms Fream to drive to Taylors Rd, Cranbourne, where an attempt was made to strangle her with a black tracksuit cord. When Ms Fream was barely conscious, the killer produced a homemade aluminium knife and she was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and upper body. Covered in blood, the killer drove the car to Maddern Ave where he dumped it. The following morning as police searched for Ms Fream, he morbidly returned to the car and stole Debra's purse and the groceries. The knife was broken in two and the killer's clothes washed, to rid them of any forensic evidence - an action repeated after each killing. The discovery of Ms Fream's body the following Monday sparked a massive police hunt. Police launched Operation Reassurance to increase the police presence in the area and a huge team of detectives, led by Det. Sen-Sgt Rod Wilson, worked around the clock to find the man responsible. A massive doorknock involving more than 200 detectives was planned on the morning of July 31. Denyer's home was smack-bang in the middle of the target area. On July 30, an unregistered car was spotted at the Langwarrin flora and fauna reserve about 12.10pm where police believe the driver was stalking a group of schoolchildren. At 2.30pm the driver stopped his car in Skye Rd. A vigilant postman, who thought the man was acting suspicious, called police. When police arrived 15 minutes later, the man had already headed up a track after seeing Natalie Russell cross Skye Rd on her way home. Natalie, a VCE student, normally got a ride home with her mother Carmel but had finished school early and decided to walk home. The killer, who had already been up the track and cut three holes in the cyclone fences separating two golf courses, saw his prey and pounced. He put a hand around her mouth and dragged her through one of the fence holes to thick scrub where he tried to strangle her before repeatedly stabbing her as she pleaded for her life. After the attack, the killer went to Skye Rd where two police cars were stopped at his car. He wheeled around, stuck his bloodied hands in his pockets and walked home. A search of the area was launched after the Russells reported Natalie missing on the Friday night. The next day, police interviewed Denyer and, after originally denying that he had anything to do with the murders, he confessed. Denyer's only explanation was the urges he felt and, as he put it, he "just wanted to take life because I felt my life had been taken." This article first appeared in print in the Herald Sun in 1993.