True Crime Conversations
282 episodes - English - Latest episode: 24 days ago - ★★★★★ - 169 ratingsTrue Crime Conversations explores the stories and the people behind some of the world’s most notorious crimes.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Missing In Two Minutes: The Baffling Disappearance Of Janet Castrejon
November 03, 2021 17:00 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBRustler 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 famil...
The Bondi Clifftop Murders
October 27, 2021 17:00 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBBetween 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,...
Australia's Jack The Ripper
October 20, 2021 18:43 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBIt’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 ...
Juanita Nielsen: The Woman Who Vanished
October 13, 2021 17:00 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MBIt’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...
The Satanic Panic
October 06, 2021 18:30 - 33 minutes - 30.5 MBIn 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 ...
A Dinner Party In Canberra
September 29, 2021 18:00 - 29 minutes - 26.9 MBIt’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 d...
Myra Hindley: The Most Evil Woman In Britain
September 22, 2021 18:00 - 38 minutes - 35 MBIt’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 Dow...
Australia’s Most Notorious Female Killer
September 15, 2021 18:00 - 41 minutes - 38.1 MBIt 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 ...
America's Boogeywoman: The Story Of Aileen Wuornos
September 08, 2021 19:00 - 41 minutes - 38 MBAileen 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...
The Day Dalia Dippolito Tried To Have Her Husband Murdered
September 01, 2021 19:00 - 32 minutes - 30.3 MBIt’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 tha...
Introducing Extraordinary Stories: The Demonisation Of Lindy Chamberlain
August 31, 2021 03:42 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBWe’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 sto...
A Startling Murder In West Cork
August 25, 2021 19:00 - 36 minutes - 33.9 MBWest 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,...
Did He Really Do It? The Disturbing Case Of Robert Farquharson
August 18, 2021 20:00 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBIt’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 t...
Who Killed Leanne Holland?
August 11, 2021 18:00 - 34 minutes - 32 MBOn 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,...
The Frankston Murders
August 04, 2021 18:00 - 37 minutes - 34 MBIt’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 sh...
MH17: The Passenger Plane Shot Down From The Sky
July 28, 2021 18:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBIt’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 ai...
Dr. Death
July 21, 2021 18:00 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBIt 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 Mar...
The Real Life Dr. Death
July 21, 2021 18:00 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBIt 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 Ma...
Life With The Serpent: The Story Of Charles Sobhraj
July 14, 2021 18:00 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBIt 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...
The Myall Creek Massacre
July 07, 2021 18:00 - 39 minutes - 36 MBIt’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...
The Devil’s Grip: A Deadly Secret
June 30, 2021 18:00 - 30 minutes - 28 MBSeven 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 da...
The Good Girls: A Double Tragedy In A Quiet Village
June 23, 2021 20:00 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBHanging 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 ...
Barrenjoey Road: The Case Of Trudie Jeanette Adams
June 16, 2021 20:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBOn 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 ...
Finding Cleo: The Story Of A Lost Child
June 09, 2021 18:00 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBOn today’s episode Jessie is speaking with award-winning investigative journalist Connie Walker, whose podcast ‘Stolen’ & ‘Missing & Murdered’ uncovers an overlooked epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls in North America. Her ‘Finding Cleo’ series tells the story of the young Cree girl who was taken from her family by child welfare workers in Saskatchewan in the 1970s, and unearths what truly happened to her... CREDITS Guest: Carrie Walker Host: Jessie Stephens Produ...
The Dunblane Massacre: Britain's Deadliest Mass Shooting
June 02, 2021 18:00 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBIt’s a Wednesday morning in March 1996, and the bell sounds at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling in Scotland. Students scramble to their classrooms, their minds are caught up in homework and friendships, and the game they were just playing in the yard. A class of twenty-eight Primary 1 pupils, aged between four and six, congregate in the gymnasium, preparing for their morning PE lesson. In a nearby classroom sits an eight-year-old boy whose name is Andy. He has blue eyes and sandy ...
The Belrose Bomb
May 26, 2021 18:00 - 23 minutes - 21.5 MBIt’s June 15, 1998, a cool winter’s evening on Sydney’s northern beaches. The leafy, quiet and friendly suburb of Belrose is located about 19 kilometres northeast of Sydney’s CBD. For a man named Brett Boyd, it's no accident he lived there. The 27-year-old had moved away from the bustling nightlife of Kings Cross. His friends were involved heavily in the club scene - some dealing drugs like cocaine. Elements of the work had begun to scare him, and so he retreated to a suburb where he fe...
Introducing Extraordinary Stories: Belle Gibson
May 24, 2021 08:32 - 31 minutes - 28.5 MBWe’re popping into your feed to share with you our new episode of Extraordinary Stories: Belle Gibson. Episodes two and three of Extraordinary Stories; Belle Gibson are available exclusively to MPlus members. To become a member and listen to the full series right now, head to www.mamamia.com.au/podcasts/extraordinary-stories/ Belle Gibson fooled not only her hundreds of thousands of followers, but the most prestigious book publishers in Australia, the tech giants of silicon valley, and eve...
Buried Without A Body: The Murder Of Helen McCourt
May 19, 2021 18:00 - 26 minutes - 24 MBIt’s 4pm on the 9th of February, 1988. A 22-year-old woman named Helen McCourt, with long, dark brown hair picks up the phone. She's about to leave work at the Royal Insurance office in Liverpool, having negotiated with her boss to leave an hour early. Helen is ringing her mother, Marie. She tells her that tonight she’ll be going out with her new boyfriend, but asks that her mother have tea ready when she arrives home so she’ll have enough time to wash her hair. Marie agrees. Sitting ...
The Husband Poisoner
May 12, 2021 18:00 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBFor Desmond Butler, it began with a headache. Then diarrhoea. Nausea that felt like a hangover. He was otherwise a healthy man, not yet 30. He shared two children with his wife Yvonne Gladys Butler, a striking woman, small and doll-like. Desmond also attracted the attention of neighbours, with dark, thick floppy hair, an athletic physique and perhaps a wandering eye. It was October 1947, and the young couple lived in a small house in the then working-class suburb of Newtown in Sydney. ...
The Man Who Murdered Luke Batty
May 05, 2021 18:00 - 42 minutes - 39.4 MBIt was February 12, 2014, a hot summer evening, and eleven year old Luke Batty was at cricket practice on a sports oval in the Melbourne suburb of Tyabb. With blue eyes and dark blonde hair, Luke had just started Year Six. He was happy and empathetic, a best friend to his single mother Rosie. Rosie was on one end of the cricket ground, and his father, Greg Anderson was at the other. After speaking to his father, Luke ran back over to Rosie and said: “Oh mum, I haven’t seen dad for a whi...
Dennis Costas: The Murderer Who Forgets
April 28, 2021 18:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBIn July 2011 a man named Dennis Costas called in sick to work. He told his employer he was suffering from sciatica. For the rest of the afternoon, he drank heavily, characteristic of a man with a serious drinking problem. Speaking to Dr. Richard Taylor, he said he couldn’t remember much from that day. “My recollection is very distorted…” he said. He took a nap at some point and “After that,” he explained, “I really don’t know what happened. All I can remember is putting out the fire. My...
The Queensland Backpacker Murder Of Mia Ayliffe-Chung
April 21, 2021 18:00 - 24 minutes - 22.5 MBIt’s August 23, 2016, in a sleepy Queensland town named Home Hill, south of Townsville. Shelley’s Backpackers is a modest hostel in the small regional town, where backpackers on working holiday visas stay while completing their mandatory farm work. The days are long. And hot. They see snakes and operate heavy machinery without any training. Aren’t those brown snakes meant to be deadly, they think to themselves. At night, they sleep in dormitories, some sharing rooms with strangers. On t...
The Ugly Business Of Illicit Sex In America
April 14, 2021 17:00 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBLos Angeles is known as the city of dreams. The most populous city in California, Los Angeles is surrounded by mountain ranges, forests, beautiful beaches belonging to the Pacific Ocean and desert. It is the home of countless celebrities - and even more who hope to become celebrities. It is the land of hope. But Los Angeles is also one of the largest sites of human sex trafficking in the United States. If you were to drive down Figueroa Street at night, you’d see women on the sidewalks...
The Ugly Business Of Illicit Sex in America
April 14, 2021 17:00 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBLos Angeles is known as the city of dreams. The most populous city in California, Los Angeles is surrounded by mountain ranges, forests, beautiful beaches belonging to the Pacific Ocean and desert. It is the home of countless celebrities - and even more who hope to become celebrities. It is the land of hope. But Los Angeles is also one of the largest sites of human sex trafficking in the United States. If you were to drive down Figueroa Street at night, you’d see women on the sidewalks ...
The Apology Line
April 07, 2021 18:00 - 22 minutes - 20.2 MBA man calls a phone number in Manhattan. His name is Johnny. And he has a confession. The phone line connects him to Mr Apology. A man whose real name is Allan Bridge, an artist performing a long-form social experiment. There are posters up all around New York City, inviting “amateurs, professionals, criminals…” who have “wronged people.” It continues: “It is to people that you must apologise, not to the state, not to God, get your misdeeds off your chest.” The instructions read, “des...
Exposing The Secrets Of Luna Park's Ghost Train Fire
March 31, 2021 17:00 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBIt’s a cold winter’s night at Sydney’s Luna Park, nestled in the northern shore of Sydney Harbour. It’s June 9, 1979, and swarms of people ride the roller coaster and play inside Coney Island. The Tagline for the amusement park is “just for fun” - and it’s arguably one of the biggest attractions in Sydney. But one of the most popular rides is The Ghost Train, which runs along 180 metres of electric track, most of it in total darkness. Dancing skeletons and dragons heads and an imitation fi...
What Really Happened At Port Arthur: A Survivor's Story
March 24, 2021 17:00 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBTrue Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes... It’s lunchtime, on a cool Sunday in April, and the Port Arthur historic site is buzzing with visitors. Located at the southern tip of the Tasman Peninsula, Port Arthur is located about 100 kilometres south-east of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania. The quaint village was once a penal settlement and a mai...
The Story Behind Snowtown
March 17, 2021 17:00 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBTrue Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes... It’s the 20th of May, 1999, an autumn day in South Australia. For 12 months, there has been an inquiry into the disappearance of a woman named Elizabeth Haydon, a 37-year-old mother of eight. But it isn’t just her. Two other people from a similar area have been reported missing. And there has been no t...
Peter Falconio And The Real Life Wolf Creek
March 10, 2021 17:00 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBTrue Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing in on Australia’s most notorious crimes... It’s a Saturday night in the middle of July, 2001, when Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees travel down the Stuart Highway in their orange Kombi van. Peter is 28, and in the driver’s seat. His girlfriend, 27-year-old Joanne, is in the passenger seat. They’ve been in Australia for a little over five month...
Anita Cobby: The Full Story
March 03, 2021 17:00 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBTrue Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This month we’re focusing in on Australia’s most notorious crimes... It’s the morning of February 6, 1986. Australia as a nation, but more specifically New South Wales, is in a state of shock. Two days prior, the body of 26 year old nurse Anita Cobby had been found in a paddock in Prospect, 32 kilometres west of Sydney’s CBD. The news had broken that Anita had been ...
Coming Soon: Australia's Most Notorious Crimes
March 03, 2021 05:29 - 1 minute - 1.51 MBTrue Crime Conversations explores the world's most notorious crimes by speaking to the people who know the most about them. This March we’re focusing on Australia’s most notorious crimes...from Anita Cobby to Snowtown. 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 Mamam...
The Night Stalker
February 24, 2021 19:00 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBIt’s May 30, 1985, in Burbank, California. Spring is turning to summer, and the wide streets in the San Fernando Valley are lined with their signature palm trees. A 42 year old woman named Carol Kyle is at home with her 11 year old son. She doesn’t know yet that there is a man in her neighbourhood, driving a stolen car. At some stage during the night, in the shadow of darkness, this man enters her home. At gunpoint, he binds Carol’s son with handcuffs and ransacks their house, demanding sh...
The Edward Street Baby Farm
February 17, 2021 19:00 - 22 minutes - 20.7 MBIt’s February 5, 1907, and a short, dark haired man in his late thirties named Corporal O’Halloran is on the doorstep of a house on Edward Street in the city of Perth. He has been called there by the owner, a woman named Alice Mitchell. Alice Mitchell is known to care for babies. Specifically, babies belonging to single parents, who have no choice but to return to work and earn a living. She has cared for dozens over the last six or so years. But she’s called Corporal O’Halloran there beca...
The Execution of Melbourne's Vampire Gigolo
February 10, 2021 19:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBIt’s August 16, 2002, when a man named Shane Chartres-Abbott meets a client at South Yarra’s Hotel Saville. The 27-year-old is a male prostitute, who specialises in sadomasochistic sex. With him, he carries a black bag full of sex toys, including a whip, ropes, condoms and handcuffs. The woman he is meeting, 30-year-old Penny, is not a stranger. She too works in the sex industry. They’ve met for his services before, but have started to get to know each other, with Penny being one of Shane’...
Sydney’s Infamous 'Granny Killer'
February 03, 2021 19:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBIt’s the first day of Autumn, 1989, in an affluent Sydney suburb. Mosman is on the lower north shore and known for being comfortable and safe, a short distance from Taronga Zoo and Balmoral Beach. An 82 year old woman named Gwendoline Mitchell Hill is walking down military Rd towards her apartment in the late afternoon. She doesn’t know a man has spotted her, concocting a plan of what to do next. She won’t make it inside. And she will be the first known victim of a vicious predator who ...
The Abduction of Wendy Pfeiffer
January 27, 2021 19:00 - 27 minutes - 25 MBThe small town of Mylor, buried in the Adelaide Hills, has a population of just over one thousand people. Properties sit on sprawling bushland, between the mountainous terrain, and today people visit to camp or see the native animals. It was October 1966 when eight year old Wendy Jane Pfeiffer, petite with short hair and rosy cheeks, decided to walk the family dog on a quiet Sunday afternoon. She took Bonnie, a brown and white farm dog, down a dirt track, which has barely changed in 55 yea...
The Melbourne Schoolgirl Strangler
January 26, 2021 21:45 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBIt’s a sunny Saturday afternoon in Spring, 1930. Mena Griffiths is 12 years old and living with her family in suburban Melbourne. There’s a park she often visits with her friends and she asks her parents if she can go out and play. Her parents can’t know that there’s a man sitting at a local hotel bar. He’s about 30 years old. He is known to the community as a family man, with a wife named Bernice and a baby named Joan. At 18 he had been sent to a reformatory prison for theft. Shortly afte...
BEST OF 2020: The Fake Diving Resort
January 13, 2021 19:00 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBIn the 1980s, a brochure was printed across the world, for an idyllic holiday resort called Arous. It was a diving resort on the Red Sea, in the Sudanese desert. The brochure featured pictures of chalets on a bright beach, the sea almost the same colour as the sky But what guests of the resort didn’t know was that Arous wasn’t really a holiday resort. At least not primarily. And the staff weren’t really managers, or diving instructors, or waitresses. Once the sun went down, those who worked ...
BEST OF 2020: Blood On The Tracks: What Happened To Mark Haines
January 06, 2021 19:00 - 47 minutes - 44 MBAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this episode contains the names of people who have passed away. In 1988 the death of Mark Haines just outside of Tamworth in regional NSW was barely investigated by local police. The 17-year-old’s body was found on train tracks outside of town, but law enforcement treated his death as less than suspicious. You have only to pull on the threads of the case to find that the truth could be very far from that. Allan Clarke is a ...
BEST OF 2020: Gary Jubelin & The Case That Cost Him His Job
December 30, 2020 19:00 - 44 minutes - 40.9 MBIt’s July 2018 when Detective Gary Jubelin stands in front of microphones and news cameras and says the words: “I suggest you come to us before we come to you.” He is addressing the person who knows what happened to three-year-old William Tyrrell on September 12, 2014. Little did Gary know that this case would be the one to cost him his job, but as he tells host Jessie Stephens on the latest episode of True Crime Conversations, he has no regrets. Gary Jubelin is one of Australia’s most n...