Parole Review Commissioner Upholds Release of Snowtown Killer James Vlassakis

A review by the Parole Administrative Review Commissioner has upheld the South Australian Parole Board’s decision to release James Spyridon Vlassakis on parole, rejecting the Attorney-General’s application to reverse it. Commissioner David Lovell KC stated that the government failed to demonstrate reasons to overturn the board’s August 5 2025 ruling. Vlassakis was the youngest of the quartet responsible for the notorious Snowtown “bodies in barrels” killings, which resulted in 12 deaths between 1992 and 1999, eleven later classified as murders.

He pleaded guilty to four murders, including the 1998 killing of his half-brother Troy Youde, ordered by stepfather and ringleader John Bunting, and the murders of Fred Brooks, Gary O'Dwyer and David Johnson, whose remains were found in Snowtown. Now in his mid-40s, Vlassakis will be released under parole conditions.