True Crime Conversations

It’s just after 2am on an icy, winter morning in 2017. Frost glistens on the paddocks of Pandora, a sprawling property in country NSW owned by local grazier Mathew Dunbar. The old homestead on the outskirts of the town of Walcha, five hours drive north of Sydney, sits on 1200 acres on Thunderbolts Way. On this Wednesday morning, Mathew’s girlfriend Natasha Darcy is leaning over him in the bedroom, panicked, as a triple-zero operator guides her through chest compressions. Distressed, Natasha tells the operator: “He’s warm.” “Is he awake?” They ask. “No.” “Is he breathing?” “No.” “And you found him like that?” “Yes.” Blue and red lights flash through the windows as paramedics arrive, rush into the bedroom, and take over CPR. By 2:44am, 42-year-old Mathew is declared dead. And it doesn’t take long for police to declare the homestead a crime scene. CREDITS Guest: Journalist Emma Partridge, author of The Widow Of Walcha Host: Gemma Bath Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s New Year’s Eve, 1997, and 17-year-old Olivia Hope is getting ready for a party at Furneaux Lodge, a beautiful old residence that sits at the head of one of the bays and coves that make up The Marlborough Sounds. A picturesque holiday spot on the northern end of New Zealand’s south island where the bush meets the sea. The lodge is only accessible by boat, so Olivia, her older sister, and their friends have booked a chartered yacht called Tamarack that will deliver them to the celebrations after an afternoon basking in the sun. Furneaux is the place to be on New Years and the local teenagers are getting ready to dance away the night with 15-hundred other partygoers. Over in Punga Cove, just across the inlet, Ben Smart is partying the afternoon away with mates. He too has plans to join the fun at Furneaux and hitches a ride over on a boat as the party gets started. But what happens to Ben and Olivia after the clock strikes midnight, will become one of the most high-profile and hotly contested murder investigations New Zealand has ever seen. CREDITS Guest: Journalist Mike White Host: Gemma Bath Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the early hours of Friday, April 20, 2012, and police are knocking on the door of a blue weatherboard home in Brisbane’s west, after reports a mother of three young girls has gone missing.  Her husband, Gerard Baden-Clay, answers. He’d called triple zero at 7:15am that morning to tell them he hadn’t seen his wife, Allison, since the night before.  'Allison often went for a walk in the morning around 5am,' he told the operator. He assumed that was where she was when he woke up to an empty bed. But it was unusual that she wasn’t home yet. 'She was supposed to leave for a seminar in the city around 7am' As he relays his story again to the responding officers, they’re quick to notice the scratches on the real estate agent’s face. 'A shaving injury,' he tells them. Peering into his home they’re taken aback by how clean it is. Like someone has made an effort to tidy up ahead of their arrival.  Over the next ten days Gerard’s story will be unravelled, exposing a double life with deadly consequences. While officers and local volunteers comb backyards, rivers and streets police will piece together a damning case of what really happened to Allison Baden-Clay. CREDITS Guest: Former Detective Superintendent Mark Ainsworth Host: Gemma Bath Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Six days after the death of her boyfriend Conrad Roy in 2014, Michelle Carter sent a text to her friend. “I just had it all planned out. Now I have to do something different, maybe something better, I just don't think that that's possible. He was my person you know?” she wrote.  Except in Michelle and Conrad’s reality, their relationship was so private neither of their families knew they were even an item. It was a relationship that had blossomed almost exclusively on text. Thousands of them. Sent over years. Michelle & Conrad were texting the night Conrad drove into a Kmart car park, alone, in Fairhaven, - an hour’s drive from where Michelle lived in Plainville -  and took his own life.  In today’s episode, Gemma is speaking with political theorist Dr. Mark Tunick, about the now infamous texting-suicide case of Michelle Carter & Conrad Roy III. CREDITS Guest: Dr. Mark Tunick Host: Gemma Bath Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Madeliene Joannou  CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au     Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing the new host of True Crime Conversations, Gemma Bath.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a summer morning in Camp Hill, an eastern suburb of Brisbane, when 31 year old Hannah Clarke helped her three children, six year old Aaliyah, four year old Laianah, and three year old Trey, get ready for the day ahead.  It was Wednesday, February 19, 2020, and the morning was characteristically chaotic.  Hannah was staying with her parents, following the breakdown of her relationship with Rowan Baxter, a man who had become increasingly abusive.  As Hannah buckled her three small children into the car, Baxter emerged, having been watching her nearby. He forced her into the driver’s seat, and slipped himself into the passenger seat, holding a knife to her throat and telling her to drive.  Within minutes, their three children would be dead. Hannah would sustain injuries so horrific, she would later die in hospital.  The story of Hannah Clarke and her three children sent shock waves across the country, as we learned this was a woman who had a domestic violence order out against her former partner.  The murder of four people was an endpoint in a reign of terror Baxter had subjected his family to for years. And an inquest, which finished only last week, shined a spotlight on the events leading up to that day, in February 2020. CREDITS Guest: Kate Kyriacou Host: Jessie Stephens Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women like Dorothy Davis, a 74-year-old widow, rarely go missing. She lived in the seaside suburb of Lurline Bay in south-east Sydney. She had friends, children, and grandchildren. Her life was peaceful. She was financially comfortable. The people who loved her knew where she would be on any given day. She had a lot to live for. But in May 1995, Dorothy went to visit a friend, and never came home. Kerry Whelan, a healthy and well-liked 39-year-old, was also not the kind of woman who goes missing. She was married to Bernie Whelan, the CEO of a large multinational company that made forklifts called Crown Equipment. With their three children, the family lived on their sizable property at Kurrajong in north-western Sydney. But in May 1997, Kerry made a trip to Parramatta, and never came home. These two women didn’t know each other. But they did have one thing in common. They both happened to know a man named Bruce Burrell. CREDITS Guest: Mark Tedeschi QC, author of Missing, Presumed Dead Host: Jessie Stephens Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the 23rd of September, 1979, and a cabin cruiser, known as the Nocturne, is cruising through deep blue waters just off the far north coast of NSW.  It’s a near-perfect day for the five passengers on board. A light nor-easter is blowing and the sun is glistening off the boat’s sleek, white hull. But as the day wears on conditions begin to change… clouds form on the horizon… but the Nocturne presses on with its voyage. As night falls the warm breeze of the day disappears, replaced by the icy chill of a southerly buster. The wind picks up speed...20 knots...40 knots...60 knots. That white hull that had been shining in the sun just hours earlier, is now being beaten by unrelenting, ten-metre high seas.  A rogue wave smashes through one of the boat’s windows, flooding the interior. Moments later, the engines fail. As the boat begins to sink, the passengers have no choice but to abandon ship.  Of the five people on board that night, only three make it to shore. What happened to those lost at sea remains a mystery that will only be unravelled 32 years later when a badly weathered bone fragment washes ashore at Kingscliff Beach… CREDITS Guest: Adam Shand, host of the Lost At Sea podcast. Host: Claire Murphy Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the 20th of June 1994, and the residents of Andersons Bay, in Dunedin, are waking up to a crisp, dark morning. Ice frosts the roads and despite it being after 7 o’clock the sun is still yet to appear in the sky.  Three police officers stand alert on the doorstep of 65 Every Street, a ramshackle house home to the six members of the Bain Family. Eleven minutes earlier, a distressed call was made to emergency services from this location… The officers try to gain access to the house. They kick the door but it doesn’t budge. Luckily there’s a stack of firewood on the veranda, they grab a piece and use it to break the glass pane, reaching through to let themselves inside. As they enter they see a man on the floor in the foetal position. He’s crying. And as they inch closer he starts yelling ‘They’re all dead. My family is all dead.’ What they find will haunt New Zealand and stump investigators to this day. And will become the most controversial case New Zealand has ever seen… CREDITS Guest: Journalist Martin Van Beynan Author of Black Hands: Inside the Bain Family Murders Host of the BLACK HANDS - A Family Mass Murder podcast Host & Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney & Gia Moylan CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1981 and Sallie-Anne Huckstepp sits across from Ray Martin on 60 Minutes, one of Australia’s most-watched current affair programs.  She speaks clearly and emphatically. With a piercing blue stare, and a cigarette hanging from her right hand, she tells a story that Australia is not yet ready to hear.  Every word of it, we now know, is true.  Sallie-Anne’s boyfriend, a man she loved, had been murdered the week before in broad daylight. She knew the perpetrator. Everyone did. The story had made it into the papers. But what had happened to her boyfriend wasn’t reported as a murder. It was reported as brilliant police work. The man holding the gun was Roger Rogerson, an award-winning, highly respected NSW Detective Sergeant. No one had questioned his retelling of events. But Sallie-Anne decided to do the unthinkable.  She told secrets that many had taken to their graves. She explained exactly what was happening, and how the crimes currently ravaging Sydney were not as they might appear.  Sallie-Anne knew that speaking to Ray Martin was one of the most dangerous things she could do.  She did it anyway. And eventually, she would pay the ultimate price.  CREDITS Guest: Liz Hayes, host of Under Investigation Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney & Gia Moylan CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the 21st of January, 2010, and Vicky Rockefeller is in her house in the affluent suburb of East Malvern - roughly 8 kilometres southeast of Melbourne's CBD. Her two children are out. And she’s expecting her husband, Herman, any minute now.  Herman has been away on a business trip, a regular practice for his line of work as a property developer, and had messaged her earlier to say his flight had been delayed. Herman was good like that, he’d text her updates so she wouldn’t worry while he was away and he would always call her once he landed. But Herman hadn’t called her tonight. So she waits, assuming he’d just forgotten this one time and that his blue Toyota Prius will pull into the driveway at any moment.  But the minutes tick by into hours, with no sign of Herman. She texts and calls, but nothing. Just after midnight, Vicky calls the police. Her husband’s plane landed at 9:35pm. So the question is where is Herman Rockefeller? CREDITS Guest: Hilary Bonney Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney & Gia Moylan CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kananook railway station is located on the Frankston line in Victoria, about 50 minutes from Melbourne’s CBD.  At approximately 10:20pm, on the 11th of July, 1990, a 23-year-old woman named Sarah MacDiarmid can be seen alighting from the train and walking in the direction of the poorly lit car park, where she parked her red Honda Civic that morning.  She is no doubt in a hurry to get home. She has work in the morning, and her train had been running 20 minutes late.  Despite it being late on a Wednesday night, there are people around. They see the woman, with blonde hair, holding a tennis racket.  She crosses the footbridge. Someone will later remember a female voice shouting “Give me back my keys”. We won’t know if that voice belongs to Sarah.  Between the footbridge and sliding into the driver’s seat of her car, Sarah vanishes into thin air. There are traces that she made it to her vehicle, but someone, or perhaps a group of people, targeted her. But who? And why?  Will we ever know for certain what happened to Sarah MacDiarmid on that night, in the middle of winter, three decades ago? CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Guest: Vikki Petraitis Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Leah Porges & Gia Moylan CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1987 and a coastal town named Noosa Heads in Queensland is about as idyllic as it gets. On the Sunshine Coast, Noosa Heads isn't yet the popular and developed tourist destination that it is today. It is surrounded by rivers, lookouts, bays, national park and of course expansive coastline. Families feel proud to bring their kids up in such a beautiful and safe coastal town, where they often play outside until the sun goes down.  Sian Kingi is 12 years old, tall for her age with long blonde hair and dark brown eyes. She’s described as the kind of girl who would accidentally knock her opponent in netball, and stop to make sure she was okay. She’s shy, popular but never cruel.  It’s a Friday afternoon on November 27, and after school, Sian and her mother Linda go shopping. She has a party that weekend, and so Linda takes her to a fabric shop so together they could make Sian something to wear.  At 4:30pm, the pair finish up and head home. While Linda walks home, Sian takes her bike, and for most of the journey, they’re together. But when they get to a local park, Linda walks around it, while Sian cycles through it, passing the tennis courts.  When Linda walks through the door, she figures Sian will be a moment behind her. But she waits and waits.  What happened to Sian Kingi that day remains every parent’s worst nightmare and would change the beachside town forever. Hers is a name so many Australians won’t ever forget.  CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Guest: Dot Whittington Executive Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Ian Camilleri & Gia Moylan RESOURCES  Crime Investigation Australia: Murder Of Innocence - Sian Kingi CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was a Tuesday in April 2003, when an emergency phone call was made from a visitor at 20 Grass Tree Close, Bridgeman Downs in Brisbane's north.  The phone call was made by a 33-year-old man named Massimo Sica, known to most as Max. The purpose for his visit, according to his testimony, was to see his on and off again girlfriend, 24-year-old flight attendant Neelma Singh.  Neelma was the second eldest child of Shirley and Vijay Singh, who had migrated to the northern suburb of Brisbane 10 years prior from Fiji, along with their four children.   At the time of the emergency phone call in 2003, Shirley and Vijay were away visiting Fiji.  Max would later tell police that once he ventured inside the house, he noticed bloodstains on the carpet of Neelma’s upstairs bedroom. He followed the blood. But as he got closer to her parent's bedroom, he heard the sound of running water.  When Max stepped inside the ensuite of the main bedroom, he claims to have found blankets piled into the spa bath. There was water covering the floor, overflowing to such an extent that the ceiling below was buckling under the weight.  As he removed the blankets, he says he uncovered the body of Neelma.  Inside that spa bath, were also the bodies of her brother, 18-year-old Kunal Singh, and her 12-year-old sister, Sidhi Singh. They had all been murdered.  Suddenly, police were looking at a triple homicide in a quiet Brisbane suburb. What unfolded would become the longest murder trial in Queensland history. According to some experts, however, there remains a number of questions that still, almost 20 years later, do not have answers.  CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Guest: Graeme Crowley, host of Loose Ends: A Singh Family Tragedy Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daniel Morcombe, a 13-year-old boy with bright blue eyes and dark brown hair, stands at a bus stop beneath an overpass. Today, he is wearing a bright red t-shirt.  It’s Sunday, the 7th of December 2003, at 2:10pm. He’s waiting for a bus to take him to the Sunshine Plaza Shopping Centre so he can get a haircut and buy some Christmas presents. At home, are his parents, Denise and Bruce Morcombe, his identical twin brother Bradley, and his older brother, Dean.  A bus passes but doesn’t stop. On it, is a 13-year-old girl who notices the boy on the side of the road. There’s a gaunt man standing behind him. Another girl on the bus, who is 17 years old, also notices the pair. She will remember the man with him as having long hair, a goatee and sunglasses, with a sports bag by his side.  The bus driver motions to the boy that there is another bus coming.  But by the time the bus gets there, the boy in the red shirt is gone.  In the years afterwards, police would identify and befriend the paedophile they believed targeted Daniel that day. It would become one of the most remarkable police stings in Australian history, providing chilling insight into one of our country’s most evil killers.  CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Guest: Kate Kyriaku, author of The Sting Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Ian Camilleri & Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the 7th May, 1929. Nearly two years since gangster Norman Bruhn was gunned down in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills. The man who’d tried to interfere with the stronghold Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh had on East Sydney had failed, and paid with his life in the process. But two years on from his death, the streets are still dripping with the blood of razor victims. With or without Norman Bruhn, chaos still reigns on the streets of Darlinghurst. Tilly’s brothel empire is raging, and locals still can’t get enough of Kate’s sly-grog, but there’s another organised crime kingpin in town. His name is Phil Jeffs, and in Kings Cross, if you’re looking for somewhere to gamble or something to snort, he’s your man. He fancies himself as Australia’s very own Al Capone. Smartly dressed and well-spoken, he might look the part, but Phil Jeffs isn’t to be trusted.  Phil runs the fourth floor of a building on William St, Wooloomooloo, called the 50/50 club. It’s a den of debauchery, where police take back-alley payments to turn a blind eye to rife prostitution and drug dealing. It’s inside the 50/50 club where he’s been cheating his suppliers. The cocaine on the streets of East Sydney is being cut with washing powder, boric acid and other substances. Diluted. It means the likes of Tilly’s girls and Kate’s standover men are being sold an adulterated product. It means Phil Jeffs is ripping them off.   The rival gangs have found out about Phil’s trick and they want blood. So in scenes reminiscent of a Hollywood Western, angry gangsters challenge Phil and his men to settle their dispute on the streets of Kings Cross. They’re there to show Phil how they feel, in the only way these mobsters know how to. With violence.  It’s just after 10pm in Eaton Avenue, a shadowy street off Bayswater Road. It’s no mistake these gangs are gathered here. Eaton Avenue is better known as Blood Alley by locals. A notoriously rough spot where muggings and street brawls are commonplace.  The men on Blood Alley know exactly what they’ve come for, and it’s not just cut-throat razors to fear. Whatever they can get their hands on, boots, clubs, bricks all fly through the air. Many of the men are heavily armed, and for thirty long minutes, gunfire illuminates this dimly-lit patch Kings Cross. Finally, the police arrive. The mobsters disperse and Phill Jeffs escapes by jumping on the back of a car. But the battle of blood alley follows him home. And before Phil Jeffs goes to bed on this chilling May night, gangsters will break into his home and shoot him multiple times, as Razorhurst continues to live up to its name. CREDITS Host: Emma Gillespie Guests: Larry Writer & Leigh Straw Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1926, and Sydney’s underworld is held tightly in the hands of Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine. But down in Melbourne? They’ve got a fella called Joseph Theodore Leslie Taylor running the show, or ‘Squizzy’ as he was better known. Squizzy Taylor is a bonafide gangster in every sense, backed up by a handful of savage henchmen and crooks, known as The Fitzroy Gang. Norman Bruhn is one of Squizzy’s closest confidants. Well, he was. Until…he crossed him. Usually, a betrayal of the kingpin would cost you your life, but Norman Bruhn had been spared, under one condition. That he get the hell out of Melbourne quick-smart, and never, ever return. So Norman, his wife, and their two sons pack up and head north, to Sydney. A fresh start, he thinks. This man is a hardened gangster, a standover man, thief, and pimp, and he doesn’t think much of two women running the streets of Sydney. Norman thinks he can shake things up around Darlinghurst. He wants to take a slice of the pie that in his mind, has been in the wrong hands for too long. It doesn’t take him long to assemble a crew of villains, a gang who would roam the streets of East Sydney carrying not guns to intimidate their enemies, but cut-throat razors. Sharp enough to cause serious damage to anyone caught on the wrong side of Norman Bruhn or one of his boys. Not only are these razors serious weapons, they’re a cheap and easy way to protect yourself, and fly under the radar of police, who are busy targeting mobsters carrying illegal firearms.  Momentarily, life will get more difficult for Tilly and Kate under the disruption their new Victorian competitor brings. But Norman Bruhn is about to bite off more than he can chew. Kate and Tilly are already in a never-ending battle to dominate Darlinghurst and its surrounds. This town? It just ain’t big enough for three of them. In a few short months, Norman Bruhn will be dead. And it will be just the beginning of bloodshed between East Sydney’s cruelest and most cunning gangsters.  CREDITS Host: Emma Gillespie Guests: Larry Writer & Leigh Straw Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 It’s the 4th of February 1964. Once dubbed ‘The Worst Woman in Sydney,’ Kate Leigh lies unresponsive in a hospital bed at St Vincent's in Darlinghurst. She suffered a severe stroke just a few days earlier, and she’s about to take her final breath. But the twilight years of Kate Leigh’s life have not been marked by the debauchery and violence of her heyday. There’s no more sly grog, no diamonds and fur, no more cocaine, and no more razor gangs.  She was once one of the wealthiest and most powerful underworld figures in the country. But as Kate Leigh slips away at St Vincent’s Hospital, the 82-year-old has lost almost everything. From changes to alcohol laws, increased police powers, and a rather unwelcome knock at the door from the taxman, Kate Leigh will die bankrupt and impoverished. But she hadn’t quite lost everything. Kate Leigh never moved away from the pocket of East Sydney she once ran, and locals never forgot about their infamous Aunty Kate. Despite her criminal past, ties to violent razor fights and deadly shootouts, some 700 mourners packed out St Peter’s Catholic Church in Kate’s Surry Hills for her funeral. Among the attendees? Kate’s long-time rival, her once ferocious enemy, Tilly Divine. And though it may have seemed the ruthless antics of Kate and Tilly were put to bed, at their prime, they were giants. Equal parts revered and feared by those who crossed them. Long before their time would be up, these force-to-be-reckoned-with women left an indelible mark on one of Sydney history’s most notorious chapters. The Razor Wars.  CREDITS Host: Emma Gillespie Guests: Larry Writer & Leigh Straw Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The year is 1927.  Sydney is in a post-war party that’s been raging on for almost a decade. The suburb of Darlinghurst is the beating heart of it all, and the surrounding areas of Kings Cross, Potts Point, Woolloomoloo and Surry Hills are slums of debauchery, crime and vices. It’s an underworld run by two rival crime queens. Kate Leigh and Tilly Divine.  In an effort to stamp out excessive alcohol consumption, pubs have shut at 6pm since 1916, giving rise to what they call the six o'clock swill - where punters attempt to drink as much as they can in the final minutes before 6, before being tossed out of the pub. Thirsty working-class Sydneysiders have the money and appetite for more. So the sly-grog business is born. Unlicensed hotels and liquor-stores are concealed behind butcher shops and florists. There’s one on every corner and chances are, if you’re somewhere in East Sydney, Kate Leigh supplied the Sly Grog you’re drinking.  As you sip that over-priced, watered down whiskey, you’re probably no more than a stone's throw from one of Tilly Devine’s parlours. The London born madam has a gift for acquiring brothels. She’s just 26 and controls some 20 brothels in Darlinghurst alone.  Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine have a stranglehold on their respective businesses, but in a city of sin, with egos like theirs, blood will spill over and over again for control of the streets of Darlinghurst, or Razorhurst as it’s about to become known. CREDITS Host: Emma Gillespie Guests: Larry Writer & Leigh Straw Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This month on True Crime Conversations we’re examining the life and crimes of Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine, and the violent razor wars that erupted between their two gangs with special guest host Emma Gillespie. Coming to your ears from January 6th. Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the 21st of February, 2021, a summer’s day on the south coast of New South Wales.  A small group of campers are walking along Bournda Beach, an incredible expanse of pristine sand, and clear, blue water, surrounded by national park. Along the shore, washed up, they spot a single, grey, Asics shoe. It is only when they look more closely that they realise inside it holds human remains. The group, visiting for a surfing trip, are alarmed. Quickly, they contact the police. It wasn’t long before the police were able to identify who the DNA belonged to. It is Melissa Caddick, who had disappeared three months prior from her Dover Heights home, some 438 kilometres from the south coast beach. What the discovery didn’t answer was what exactly happened to Caddick. Did she take her own life? Was she murdered by her enemies? Or, is it possible that the foot was not evidence she was dead at all. Could Melissa Caddick, a woman accused of stealing more than $30 million, still be alive? CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Guest: 7News Journalist & Presenter Michael Usher Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producers: Ian Camilleri & Rhiannon Mooney CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s an unusual place to start a true crime story - at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1985.  The director of the gallery, a man named Patrick McCaughey, purchases a single painting for $1.6 million. Due to currency fluctuations, the cost increases to $2 million, the most expensive purchase ever made by an Australian gallery. The painting is by Pablo Picasso, titled The Weeping Woman. The work represents suffering - oddly fitting for the story that was about to unfold.  Also oddly fitting is the statement made by McCaughey upon announcing the purchase. He said of the Weeping Woman: “This face is going to haunt Melbourne for the next 100 years.”  And haunt Melbourne it did. CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Guest: Marc Fennell, host of FRAMED  Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 | beyondblue.org.au Lifeline: 13 11 14 | lifeline.org.au CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A plane colliding with the South Tower at 9:59am, on September 11, 2001, would become the first terror attack watched in real-time by millions of people around the world. News anchors struggled to maintain composure. New York, and more broadly, the United States, was under attack.  The north tower continued to burn. Images and video footage were broadcast on every news channel. For a generation, those images would become imprinted on our psyches. We watched as the buildings collapsed, thousands of people still inside them. In a nearby hospital, stood an Australian woman named Liz. For her, it was an otherwise normal day at work. That all changed when she heard an emergency siren. CREDITS Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a clear, still Tuesday morning in New York City. The autumn sky is bright blue and the two World Trade Centres mark the highest points of the Manhattan skyline.  At 8:30am the business district is bustling. Workers are making their way into elevators or stopping for a quick coffee. Their minds are on their morning meeting or the kids they just dropped off at school. Most don’t notice the plane flying too low, far too low, until they hear it. A terrible sound pierces through one of the biggest cities in the world, as a passenger plane flies directly into the north tower. Within minutes, the story will go live across the globe.  What they don’t know is that in 17 minutes, a second plane will collide with the south tower. This isn’t an accident. It’s an attack.  On September 11, 2001, 2,976 people were killed as a result of four hijacked commercial airliners. Two crashed into the World Trade Centers, a third targeted the Pentagon, with a fourth aiming for the U.S. Capitol building but brought down in a field by several brave passengers.  Five men have been charged with these acts of terrorism, and the case is the largest criminal prosecution in U.S. history in terms of the number of victims.  But this episode is not about the men responsible.  It’s about how that day truly unfolded, and the nearly 3000 victims who did not know those early hours of September 11 would be their last. CREDITS Guest: Garrett Graff, author of The Only Plane In The Sky Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Rhiannon Mooney & Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s May 9, 2001, and the family of missing teenager, Natasha Ryan, are holding a memorial service in Bundaberg, Queensland. Today would have been her 17th birthday.  Natasha, with dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and fair, freckled skin, had disappeared on August 31, 1998. She was 14 years old. For almost three years, there has been no trace of her.  Her father, Robert Ryan, and mother, Jenny Ryan, have accepted that their daughter is dead. They may never find her remains. But at this memorial, they say their final goodbyes. Their pain is palpable to everyone around them.  But - as they will later learn - Natasha Ryan is still alive. She’s about 25 minutes away. And in a story unlike anything seen anywhere in the world, Natasha will appear at her own murder trial two years later.  Her story is one Australia won’t ever forget. CREDITS Guests: Tara Brown & Paula Doneman  Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was December 1982, when 21-year-old Shelly Barnett, described by Vanity Fair as a willowy beauty with strawberry blonde hair, married 22-year old David Miscavige in Los Angeles. She would become the First Lady of Scientology.  Those who knew her described her as shy, often appearing lonely and isolated. At the same time, some witnesses say she was prone to losing her temper, much like her husband.  In all the years they were together, members of Scientology who have gone on the record say they cannot remember any affection between the two. They did not hug or kiss. Theirs was very much a working relationship. They were both dedicated to the Church of Scientology above all else and were busy attracting high-profile celebrities to their church. Their project worked. They recruited Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Elisabeth Moss, Danny Masterton, and Nancy Cartwright.   By 2004, Claire Headley, an ex Scientologist who worked closely with Shelly, said she had begun to crack. “Shelly was cowed,” she said. “She was always stressed. She was never sleeping. She was just run ragged. Because of that, she was often in a bad mood and that’s where some people would just say they hated her. But she was never an evil person... It was just a god-awful situation.” And then, suddenly, Shelly Miscavige, the most high-profile woman in Scientology, vanished.  It was as though she had never existed. CREDITS Guest: Tony Ortega Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mackay is a city on the Coral Sea coast of Queensland, Australia, located about 970 kilometres north of Brisbane.  It’s known as the sugar capital of Australia, producing more than a third of the country’s cane sugar.  In South Mackay, sits a spacious pub called Harrup Park Country Club. In February 2013, this was one of the last places Shandee Blackburn was seen alive.  The 23-year-old finishes her seven hour Friday night shift and begins to make her way home to her mother’s house in Boddington Street. Wearing dark pants and a dark shirt, Shandee taps out a text message as she walks, not even 15 minutes from her destination. It’s warm outside with a light breeze, as the town enters into its last weeks of summer. The streets are quiet. Empty. Shandee has no reason to be afraid.  But that night, Shandee will not make it to her front door. A taxi driver would see a scuffle he does not understand, and call the police. She is brutally attacked. And CCTV features a man, just prior to her attack, crouching in some nearby bushes.   CREDITS Guest: Hedley Thomas, host of Shandee's Story Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1983, and a 15-year-old boy named Richard Kelvin is in a laneway in North Adelaide. He is 50 metres from his beautiful family home.  He has spent that Sunday, June the 5th, playing footy, until the afternoon when his best friend Karl came over. They kicked the footy around. Richard called his girlfriend. And then he walked Karl to the bus stop.  It’s 6:15pm, and the sun is disappearing.  He says to Karl that he doesn’t want to walk back alone. There are surrounding parklands, and he jokes “I might get mugged or something.” Richard is as aware as any other child in Adelaide that the streets aren’t safe at night. Over the last four years, boys have been murdered.  Richard attempts to run home. He wants to call his girlfriend. He must be back in time for dinner. But then a sound echoes through the neighbourhood. Multiple people hear it. The suburb is otherwise quiet, and then there’s a loud cry, as though for help, followed by the screeching of car tires.  Richard is not the first boy to go missing, but he is the most high profile. His father is a famous news presenter, Rob Kelvin.  It will be six weeks and one day before Richard’s boy is found. For most of that time, he was alive. It is a tragedy of unimaginable scale.  He is the fifth murder victim that we know of, ranging in age from 14 to 25.  The people responsible were capable of cruelty beyond what any of us could imagine. And, according to some, they belonged to a much larger network, targeting potentially hundreds of innocent victims.  CREDITS Guest: Debi Marshall Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Rustler Park sits high in the Chiricahua Mountains in southern Arizona. Campsites belonging to the park are scattered along a number of roads, sectioned off from the meadows to avoid damaging plants and fragile soils. Paths from these campgrounds lead into the Chiricahua Wilderness, a national forest full of ponderosa pine and swarming with wildlife. Large animals, like black bears, are often spotted there. In the early afternoon of Father’s Day, 2015, three members of the Castrejon family arrived and set up camp. Lydia and Eduardo Castrejon had driven up the mountain with their 44-year-old daughter, Janet. Eduardo made lunch for his family at around 4pm. But within only a few hours, Janet Castrejon would be missing. She would disappear in what seemed like a flash.  And since that summer evening on the 18th of June, 2015, Janet was never seen alive again.    CREDITS Guest: Ottavia McHenry, host of the Labyrinth podcast. Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri & Leah Porges CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Between the beaches of Bondi and Tamarama in Sydney’s picturesque Eastern suburbs, lies a steep cliff face. Parks and a walking track sit above, attracting tourists from all over the world. But below is rock and the white, foamy Pacific Ocean, the water appearing black at night time. In the 1980s, there was no railing separating the track from the steep cliff. And at night, sometimes screams were heard by locals. Bloodstains were found along the walkway. And in the very worst-case scenarios, men disappeared… or their lifeless bodies were found below - lives cut tragically short.  Some locals nicknamed the area Bondi Badlands - a spot that turned into what’s been referred to as a killer’s playground.  So what was happening to these innocent men? And why did it take such a long time for police to give these crimes the time and energy they always deserved? CREDITS Guest: Greg Callaghan, host of the Bondi Badlands podcast. Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1888, and a man who will become perhaps the most infamous serial killer in history is terrorising the streets of London. Fog rises from the damp streets of the Whitechapel district, a largely impoverished area, which has earned itself a reputation for being a cauldron of immorality. Poverty, racism, hundreds of lodging houses which function as brothels, and social unrest mean that the slums in the East End of London have already earned themselves a reputation.  It’s September 10, and five killings have taken place within one and a half kilometres of each other, in just over a month. All the victims are women. The culprit is known as Jack the Ripper, because of the horrifically brutal nature of his violent crimes.  A number of letters were sent from a man claiming to be the killer, taunting police and journalists. One of the letters purported to have been sent from hell.  To this day, the killer’s identity is unknown.  But there’s a theory that he might have been a man named Fredrick Deeming. A man who eventually, ended up in Australia.  CREDITS Guest: Garry Linnell Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a bleak, cold morning, on July 4, 1975.  A 34-year-old man named Eddie Trigg waits inside the Carousel Cabaret nightclub, known to most as a seedy bar located in the heart of Sydney’s Kings Cross.  But that’s not why Eddie, with a beard and sharp hazel eyes, is there. After all, it’s just past 10:30am. He is there to meet someone.  Juanita Nielsen, the 37-year-old owner and publisher of the newspaper NOW, makes her way towards the establishment. These will be the final moments of her life.  It’s 10:40am when she arrives. She is greeted at reception and escorted upstairs to the VIP Lounge. She is there for what she believes is a work meeting. She is never seen again.  Whispers have circulated around Sydney since. Some say her body is buried under an airport runway. Others are convinced her body is hidden beneath sand dunes.  But 46 years on, Juanita Neilsen is still known as the woman who vanished, and her body has never been found.  We do know, however, that she was a woman with enemies.  CREDITS Guest: Peter Rees Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1983, in Manhattan Beach, California, one woman named Judy Johnson put forward an allegation.  Her two-and-a-half-year-old son was, at the time, attending McMartin preschool. Johnson claimed that her son had been sexually abused by a teacher at the school named Ray Buckley. Her claims were unlike anything police had heard before. Although there was no evidence of abuse taking place, police decided to send a form letter to about 200 parents of students at the pre-school. It asked them to speak to their children and listed off possible abuse they might have experienced.  Over the next seven years, seven teachers, six of them women, were charged with more than 200 counts of child abuse, involving more than than 40 children. There were accusations of Satanic rituals, animal sacrifices, administering of drugs, the creation of child exploitation material, and flying children to far away places where they were molested. The accusations became increasingly bizarre.  By the late 1980s, “McMartin” had become a household word. The trial is among the longest and costliest criminal proceedings in the history of the United States.  What emerged, however, was that none of these events had ever taken place. Today, the children who spoke to authorities say they knew at the time their allegations were false. So what was behind this hysteria? And what was behind the Satanic panic that followed?  CREDITS Guest: Ruth McIver Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.  Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s October 24, 1997, and 25-year-old Anu Singh, a promising young law student, invites friends over for a dinner party.  She lives in a Canberra townhouse with her 26-year-old boyfriend Joe Cinque.  The pair met two years prior at a night out in Newcastle. He was said to be immediately taken by Singh, and they quickly became inseparable.  But something wasn’t right about this dinner party.  Friends who attended had heard of Singh’s plans. She’s called the night a ‘farewell’, but some didn’t take her remark seriously. Singh had issued a warning before they arrived. Tonight, in her words, “a crime was going to be committed”.  Her friends arrived to the Canberra townhouse and enjoyed the company of both Singh and Cinque. They drank and ate, and eventually, left to go home.  It’s what happened next - when the couple were alone - that has become something of a modern horror story.  CREDITS Guest: Former Detective Superintendent Greg Ranse Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Boxing Day, 1964, when a 26-year-old man named Ian Brady, and a 22-year-old woman named Myra Hindley, attend a fair in Ancoats, an area in Manchester, North West England.  The pair had met three years prior when Myra had developed an infatuation with Ian. Finally, Ian showed interest and asked her to the movies. They have been inseparable ever since, although their relationship is anything but conventional.  While at the fair, the couple notice that a ten-year-old named Lesley Ann Downey appears to be alone. In an instant, she becomes their next target.  The young couple approach her, purposefully dropping the shopping they’re carrying. Ian and Myra know that the presence of a woman means a child is more likely to trust them. This is part of their strategy.  And so, they ask Lesley if she wouldn’t mind helping them carry their packages to their car, and then on to their home on Wardle Brook Avenue.  When they arrive, Lesley Ann Downey is raped and then murdered.  She is not Ian and Myra’s first victim. And she will not be their last.  The following morning, as Lesley Ann’s family frantically search for their missing daughter, the pair bury her in a shallow grave at Saddleworth Moor, a wide open expanse of hills and uncultivated land. Her clothes are buried by her feet.  The crimes committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady would come to be known as the Moors murder, a series of killings that targeted children, four of whom were sexually assaulted.  Myra Hindley has long been branded the “most evil woman in Britain” - the exception to everything we think we know about female killers. CREDITS Guests: Dr Lizzie Seal & Dr Meghan Sacks Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was 6am on March 1, 2000, when John Price’s neighbour noticed his car was still in the driveway. It struck him as unusual.  John’s supervisor noticed his absence at work too. An off-handed comment he’d made the day before made his co-workers feel uneasy. At 8:10am, Officer Matthews and Officer Furlonger arrived at John’s home.  His front door was locked. The two policemen decided to walk around the side of the house, and break in through the back door. What they saw has been described as one of the worst scenes in Australian criminal history. A judge would later refer to what happened as “beyond contemplation in a civilised society”. The horrific actions of Katherine Knight resulted in her being one of the few women in Australia’s criminal history to be handed a sentence that will see her imprisoned for the term of her natural life. CREDITS Guest: Sandra Lee Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aileen Wuornos stares down the barrel of the camera, her eyes looking almost black. Her mousy brown hair is pushed back off her face, revealing a pink face. But the most notable thing about the mug shot, taken in front of a bright blue backdrop, is the expression on her face. A snarl. Like she is a moment from breaking out into laughter.   She would go on to say, “I’m one who seriously hates human life and would kill again…. I really got tired of it all… I was angry about the johns… I have hate crawling through my system.” Aileen Wuornos has been called America’s boogeywoman. A monster. And history’s most terrifying female killer.  From a childhood of abandonment and abuse to a tragic end in 2002, this is the story of Aileen Wuornos.  CREDITS Guest: Peter Vronksy Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a warm morning in August, 2009, when 26-year-old Dalia Dippolito decides to go to the gym. Dalia has long brown hair, tanned skin, and has only recently started working out. She leaves her house just before 6am, and drives the two kilometres from her house in Palm Beach, Florida, to the local gym. In the months prior, she’d started exercising with her husband, 38 year old Michael Dippolito. They’d been married less than a year, and to anyone who knew them, they seemed happy.  But that morning, in the middle of a Florida summer, Dalia got a phone call.  It was a detective. And she was instructed to return home, immediately.  What she saw as she drove down her street was a crime scene. There was police tape and police cars, and a detective tasked with the job of telling Dalia what had happened.  But by that evening, Dalia’s entire world had been turned on its head. Sitting in the police station, it was almost as if she’d been visited by a ghost. CREDITS Guest: Elizabeth Parker Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re popping into your feed to share with you our new episode of Extraordinary Stories: The Demonisation of Lindy Chamberlain. Episodes two and three of the season, and all past seasons of Extraordinary Stories are available to stream now, exclusively to MPlus subscribers. To subscribe to MPlus and find out more head to www.mamamia.com.au/podcasts/extraordinary-stories/ Demonised by the press. Vilified by the country. The subject of gossip and innuendo. From the viewpoint of 2021, the story of Lindy Chamberlain is a brutal reflection of 1980s Australia. Beneath the layers of lies and injustice, it’s a story of a mother who didn’t behave, look, speak or grieve the way we wanted her to after the incomprehensible loss of a child. It’s also the story of one woman, strong enough to endure it all.  In this season of Extraordinary Stories, we’re unraveling how a young woman went from mother to wrongly convicted murderer, and why the story of Azaria Chamberlain’s disappearance continues to fascinate us to this day.To listen to more episodes of The Demonisation Of Lindy Chamberlain head to mamamia.com.au/mplus WITH THANKS TO: Malcolm Brown, Journalist Dr Sophie Jensen, National Museum of AustraliaAlana Valentine, Author & PlaywrightSOURCES: Letters to Lindy, Alana ValentineDear Lindy: A nation responds to the Loss of Azaria, Alana Valentinehttps://lindychamberlain.com/ABCNetwork Ten GET IN TOUCH:Feedback? We’re listening! Call the pod phone on 02 8999 9386 or email us at [email protected] more lols, info and inspo in your ears? Find more Mamamia podcasts here... https://www.mamamia.com.au/podcasts/ CREDITS:Host: Emma GillespieWritten and Produced by Sydney Pead & Emma Gillespie, with Holly WainwrightAudio Production: Madeline JoannouExecutive Producer: Sydney Pead Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.  Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

West Cork in Ireland sits on the edge of Europe.  It’s rugged and windy, cold in the winter, and beautiful in the summer.  Since the 1960s, the district has been developed by what the people call ‘blow-ins’. People from around the world who somehow end up in West Cork, hoping to start their lives again.  Often these people are artists or runaways, living in little cottages, desperate for a reset. Sometimes, they’re people running from something. A life they wanted to escape.  Until 1996, nothing much happened in West Cork. It was quiet and peaceful, full of farmers and fishermen.  And then, one night just before Christmas, it became the backdrop to one of Ireland’s most notorious murder cases.  Locals were adamant they knew who did it.  A man who had a “badness in him”. Who never quite fit in. Who rubbed people the wrong way.  But was he responsible?  Or was he just another blow-in? CREDITS Guest: Jennifer Forde, co-host of the West Cork podcast. Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s Father’s Day, 2005, and Robert Farquharson is driving his three sons, Jai, Tyler and Bayley, home to their mother’s house. They’d spent the day together, with their mum, Cindy Gambino, helping the boys put together a Father’s Day gift for Robert. It was a framed photo of his three sons, aged 10, seven, and two.  As a treat, Robert took the boys to Kmart where he bought them toys, and then to KFC for dinner in Geelong.  Afterward, they set off along the Princes Highway, on their way to Winchelsea.  It was on this route, that the unthinkable happened.  The white VN Commodore Robert was driving veered across the highway, crashed through a fence, and began to sink in a farm dam.  Their mother, Cindy, would call it the ‘blackest ever night’.  It is a case that has imprinted itself on the memory of Victorians. But perhaps, author Chris Brook asks, all is not as it seems.   CREDITS Guest: Chris Brook Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri   CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the eastern edge of the city of Ipswich in Queensland, lies a small suburb named Goodna.  About 20 kilometres from the Brisbane central business district, Goodna is peppered with Jacaranda, Hoop Pine, and Mango trees, and boasts numerous parks which are frequented by the public. It was the 26th of September - a spring day - at 1:42pm when two police were stopped in their tracks.  They had been searching the bushland on Redbank Plains Road after a young girl, 12-year-old Leanne Holland, had been reported missing by her family a few days before.  The officers spotted a partly unclothed, shoeless body. One that would come to be identified as the blonde-haired, round-faced, Leanne.  What had happened to her? And who was responsible?  Police already had a suspect. One man.  But, as we’d come to find out, there were a handful of problems.   CREDITS Guest: Graeme Crowley, author of Who Killed Leanne Holland Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri   CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a quarter past seven in the evening on Friday, June 11, 1993.  18-year-old Elizabeth Stevens is freezing. She’s soaking wet from the rain, her short hair clinging to her neck.  She steps off the bus which she caught from Frankston to Cranbourne Road, Langwarrin, and hurries towards her aunt and uncle's house where she lives. She doesn’t know she’s being watched. She had spent her Friday evening at Frankston Library on an English assignment. Her goal is to one day join the army and she knows she has to complete this TAFE course in order to get there. That particular June night, the rain is so heavy it’s difficult to see. As Elizabeth turns into Paterson Avenue a man jumps at her out of the darkness, dressed in a green army jacket and navy baseball cap. The sound of the rain and the roaring wind drowns out her screams.  She feels what she can only assume is a gun to her head as he drags her along someone’s front lawn.  Threatening Elizabeth, the man holds her hand, directing her down Paterson Avenue. Passersby think their interaction looks innocent, not knowing that if Elizabeth doesn’t comply the man has threatened to “blow her head off”.  He leads her to Lloyd Park into a clump of bushes.  These would be the last moments of Elizabeth Stevens’ life.  Less than an hour afterwards the man responsible for her murder would be sitting inside his warm home, enjoying a roast dinner, waiting for his girlfriend to return home from work.   CREDITS Guest: Vikki Petraitis, author of The Frankston Murders: 25 Years On Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camileri   CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s just after midday on July 17, 2014, when 283 passengers, and 15 crew members board MH17 at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.  Among the passengers are 12-year-old Mo, 10-year-old Evie, and eight-year-old Otis Maslin, along with their 68-year-old grandfather, Nick Norris. MH17 is bound for Kuala Lumpur International Airport, due to arrive at 6:10am local time. The family would then go on to Perth, Australia, where they live.  But a few hours into the flight, the plane loses contact with air traffic control. The last known point of contact is about 50 kilometres from the Russia-Ukraine border.  The parents of Mo, Evie and Otis are in Amsterdam, spending two more days in the city, before heading home to join their kids.  That afternoon they think to themselves how lucky they are. How life doesn’t get any better than this.  Late that night, they’ll receive a phone call.  They are thrown into what they will later describe, a living hell.   CREDITS Guest: Meshel Laurie author of CSI Told You Lies Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camileri   CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was late 2011 when 54-year-old Kellie Martin had her accident. Along with her husband Don Martin, Kellie was retrieving Christmas decorations from their attic in Garland, Texas, when she missed a step on a ladder.  The fall resulted in a herniated disk in her back, an incredibly painful injury that she treated with physical therapy, muscle relaxers and pain relief. Eventually, her doctor recommended surgery.  An elementary school teacher, Kellie scheduled her surgery in the break of March 2012. The neurosurgeon, Dr. Christopher Duntsch, explained the procedure was simple and routine. It would only take 45 minutes, with a quick recovery. When the day came, Kellie and Don had complete trust in Dr. Duntsch. He was articulate and reassuring. The exact kind of doctor you’d want looking after you. But the 45 minutes came and went. Don sat in the waiting room, starting to wonder if something had gone terribly wrong. Eventually, Dr. Duntcsh came out. The surgery had been a success, although Kellie was in a little pain. Then, he went on to explain she might have to go up to the ICU or stay overnight. Alarm bells started sounding for Don. Something wasn’t right.  Hours passed. Still, they were working on her. Don and Kellie’s daughter’s arrived and waited with their father. They were confused. Sick with worry.  That’s when the ICU physician, Dr. Duntsch and the anesthesiologist met with them.  Kellie was dead.  Dr. Duntsch, they would later discover, had sliced an artery, and Kellie had bled to death.  For the Martin family, they were living their absolute worst nightmare.  What they didn’t know, was that of the 38 surgeries Dr. Duntsch had attempted in the last two years, 33 had gone wrong. Patients were left in chronic pain, others unable to walk, or with permanent injuries.  Patients and doctors demanded answers. And eventually, they would get them.    CREDITS Guest: Marshall Lewy from Wondery Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camileri You can stream the new Dr. Death television series on Stan.   CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was October 18, 1975, when a farmer found the body of a young woman floating face down in the Gulf of Thailand.  Teresa Knowlton was wearing a floral bikini - a detail that journalists would use to eventually brand her murderer 'The Bikini Killer'. The 21-year-old had traveled to Bangkok, from Seattle in the US, and was following the “Hippie Trail” that would eventually lead her to study Tibetan Buddhism at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu.  But along the way, she’d met someone.  Although accounts differ, it appears that a man invited Theresa to his home in Pattaya, about 100 kilometres southeast of Bangkok.  There, it’s likely her drink was poisoned. And then, she was invited out for a swim.  She would become the first victim of a man who would come to be known as 'The Serpent'.  And his crimes would only get worse.   CREDITS Guest: Julie Clarke Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camileri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s an hour and a half before sunset on a Sunday afternoon in June, 1838. A group of Indigenous Australians, the Wirrayaraay people, are cooking their evening meal. As the day nears its end, things are quiet. Calm.  They’re at Myall Creek Station, in north western NSW, between the towns of Bingara and Delungra. They’ve been camped there for a few weeks, seeking safety and protection from stockmen who have been roaming the district, killing any Indigenous person they could find.  And then they hear something. A rumbling. The sound of horses hooves. Eleven men can be seen in the distance, galloping towards them at speed.  The women grab their children. Two young boys run and dive into a nearby creek. The rest of the group - about 28 in total - scramble towards the huts, hoping that the white men would protect them. Instead, they were tied up, and led away from the huts.  What happened would come to be known as the Myall Creek massacre - a crime Australians must never, ever forget.   CREDITS Guest: Mark Tedeschi QC Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Leah Porges CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seven gunshots ring out through Victoria’s green and vast Barrabool Hills.  On the western outskirts of Geelong, the Barrabool Hills is sparsely populated, best known for grazing sheep and lamb.  It’s the early hours of Wednesday, March 18, 1992, and the sun has not yet risen. Everyone should be asleep.  But those seven gunshots will have killed three people.  For the youngest casualty, 23-year-old Guy, a gunshot shatters his watch. The time reads 4:25am.  A family line will end that day. Three generations wiped out in just minutes. But the story of Darcy Wettenhall, and the secret life he was living, is about to be revealed.   CREDITS Guest: Neal Drinnan Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hanging from a mango tree, on the edge of their village in Uttar Pradesh, are the bodies of two girls. It’s May 27, 2014, and the sun is just beginning to rise in India’s north. It’s already blisteringly hot, the air thick and overbearing. A man, a member of the village, is the first to see them. The two girls who went missing last night.  Lalli is 14, her lifeless body beside her 16-year-old cousin Padma. They were inseparable in life, neighbours who were more like sisters. Their parents have been desperately trying to find them. They will eventually be called to this orchard, and they will see what became of their daughters.  But when they find them, they do not take their bodies down. Their mistrust of police is so great that they wait for a man they trust to arrive. They think that the police will ensure these girls are forgotten. Their deaths ignored by the justice system. Instead, the women of the family guard their bodies as they are exposed to the heat, factors that would make it increasingly difficult to determine what happened.  On that day, in May 2014, photographs are taken of a scene that is shared all around the world.  These girls’ lives mattered.  And with a spotlight on this small village in India, it’s critical they determine what happened. CREDITS Guest: Sonia Faleiro  Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.  Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today’s episode host Jessie Stephens is speaking with award-winning investigative journalists Ruby Jones and Neil Mercer, co-authors of the book Barrenjoey Road. For 43 years, the case of Trudie Jeanette Adams has intrigued people on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Trudie decided to hitch-hike home, but she was never seen again. Ruby Jones first investigated the case for ABC’s Unravel podcast. The second season, titled Barrenjoey Road, investigated the disappearance of Trudie Adams. The ABC then produced the three-part documentary series with Jones and Mercer, under the same name.  CREDITS Guest: Ruby Jones & Neil Mercer  Host: Jessie Stephens Producer: Gia Moylan Audio Producer: Ian Camilleri CONTACT US Tell us what you think of the show via email at [email protected]   Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group  If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.