True Crime Conversations

Best Of 2019: The Case Of Balcony Murderer Simon Gittany

January 08, 2020 19:00 - 51 minutes - 47.4 MB

This episode of True Crime Conversations is part of our 2019/2020 Holiday series. We've handpicked episodes from throughout the year that we though deserved another listen. In 2014 Simon Gittany was found guilty of throwing his 30 year old fiancé Lisa Harnum from the balcony of their shared 15th floor apartment. Simon maintained his innocence, saying that Lisa climbed over the railing of the balcony and fell to her death. Amy Dale was a court reporter at the time of this case and has sub...

Best Of 2019: The Bowraville Murders

January 01, 2020 19:00 - 54 minutes - 50.1 MB

This episode of True Crime Conversations is part of our 2019/2020 Holiday series. We've handpicked episodes from throughout the year that we though deserved another listen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners should be advised that this episode contains the naming of deceased people, and the recounting of the circumstances leading to their deaths. Colleen Walker, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux. These are the names of three children from the town of Bowraville who were ...

Best Of 2019: The Beauty Queen Killer

December 25, 2019 19:00 - 1 hour - 59.1 MB

This episode of True Crime Conversations is part of our 2019 Holiday series. We've handpicked episodes from throughout the year that we though deserved another listen. Christopher Wilder is the Australian serial killer responsible for the biggest man hunt in US history. Wilder lured his victims by posing as a talent agent and model scout and beauty pageants across America. His modus operandi of kidnapping, torture, sexual assault and ultimately murder, spoke so deeply of his utter hatred of...

The Sydney Siege: Part Two

December 18, 2019 19:00 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MB

15 hostages remain. For some, 10 hours of terror still awaits them. On the afternoon of December 15, 2014, offices were evacuated and rumours spread of bombs planted all around Sydney city, while hostages remained trapped inside the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place. One of Sydney’s most bustling pedestrian thoroughfares, which sat on the doorstep of the Lindt Cafe, was empty and deathly silent. Terrified men and women could be seen inside the large windows, a stark contrast to the festive Chri...

The Sydney Siege: Part One

December 11, 2019 19:00 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MB

It was looking to be a warm, busy day when Tori Johnson arrived at work just after 6am on a Monday morning in December 2014. The 34-year-old was in charge at the Lindt cafe in Martin Place, and the lead up to Christmas was always chaotic, with customers purchasing gifts, like the iconic chocolate Lindt balls, for friends and family. At 7:30am, the doors opened, with customers flooding in. Among them were 38-year-old barrister Katrina Dawson, with colleagues Julie Taylor and Stefan Balafouti...

John Edwards And The Family Murder That Shook Australia

December 04, 2019 19:00 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MB

On a winter evening in July, 2018, West Pennant Hills sounded different. Usually quiet, the Thursday evening was polluted by blasting police sirens, all headed towards Hull Rd. When emergency personnel arrived, they came across a scene they wouldn’t ever forget. An hour later, 36-year-old Olga Edwards arrived home from work to find her house surrounded by police and paramedics. When she was told what had happened inside, she collapsed from “severe shock”. Her children, 15-year-old Jack Ed...

It Took 30 Years To Solve The Mystery Of What Happened To Ursula Barwick

November 28, 2019 00:57 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MB

In late Spring, 1987, 17-year-old Ursula Barwick, stepped off the platform, and boarded a train from Tuggerah on the Central Coast, bound for Sydney. The journey would take a little more than two hours and land her in Kings Cross. She’d told her parents she had work and accommodation lined up, and would call them as soon as she arrived. Her father, Peter, planned to come down that weekend to help get her settled in. It would be her first time living properly out of home. But that phone ca...

The Easey Street Murders And The Mystery That Followed

November 20, 2019 19:00 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MB

It was mid-October, 1976, when Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28 moved in to number 147, Easey St. The three-bedroom house was perfect for the two of them, as well as Armstrong’s 16-month-old son, Gregory. Then, in early 1977, neighbours would watch emergency workers and police swarm the property, after the bodies of the two women were found three days after they’d been killed. Helen Thomas is a journalist and author who was a cub reporter at Melbourne newspaper The Age at t...

Inside Australia's Worst Cult

November 13, 2019 19:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MB

Anne Hamilton-Byrne is a name that Australians won’t soon forget. What started out as a series of yoga teachings by the woman who believed she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, would end up becoming one of our country’s most sinister cults. The Family, as it would come to be known, included a number of children with dyed blonde hair, who believed Anne Hamilton-Byrne was their mother. For all but one of them, she was not. Jessie Stephens sits down with journalist and author Jo Thorne...

Anne Hamilton-Byrne And The Children Who Were Never Hers

November 13, 2019 19:00 - 29 minutes - 27 MB

Anne Hamilton-Byrne is a name that Australians won’t soon forget. What started out as a series of yoga teachings by the woman who believed she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, would end up becoming one of our country’s most sinister cults. The Family, as it would come to be known, included a number of children with dyed blonde hair, who believed Anne Hamilton-Byrne was their mother. For all but one of them, she was not. Jessie Stephens sits down with journalist and author Jo Thorne...

BONUS: Murder In The Bayou

November 11, 2019 05:13 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MB

It was May 20, 2005, when a retiree named Jerry Jackson cast his fishing line from a bridge over the Grand Marais Canal, located on the fringe of Jennings, Louisiana. The temperature was rising when Jackson noticed something below him, floating in the canal. Jackson had discovered the body of a 28-year-old woman named Loretta Lynn Lewis Chaisson. She would be the first of what would come to be known as the Jeff Davis eight. In this bonus episode of True Crime Conversations Jessie talks to...

Killed By The Man Next Door: The Murder Of Tosha Thakkar

November 07, 2019 04:53 - 43 minutes - 39.9 MB

On Friday March 9, 2011, a suitcase was found in a canal next to Meadowbank Park, located about 30 minutes from Sydney’s central business district. Inside it, was the body of Tosha Thakkar, a 24-year-old student, who had been living in a boarding house in Croydon for six months. Her boyfriend, Ali Syed had reported her missing two days prior, after she failed to meet him for lunch. When he went to her Elvin St address, her room was in disarray, and he noticed that her nightdress was missi...

What Happened To Gerard Ross: The Boy In The Blue Cap

October 30, 2019 19:00 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MB

11-year-old Gerard Ross went missing in October 1997 while on a family holiday in the WA town of Rockingham. Two weeks later a horse trainer was out exercising his horses when he discovered Gerard’s body dumped in a pine plantation 20 kms from town. While police have always had suspects in the case, no one has ever been convicted of the 11-year-old’s abduction and murder. Award winning investigative journalist Kristin Shorten has spent her career covering the case. Ahead of a new documenta...

A Terrifying Monster: The True Story Of Leonard Fraser

October 23, 2019 19:00 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MB

Leonard Fraser was the very embodiment of a monster. He was sentenced to life on the 7th of September 2000 for the abduction rape and murder of 9-year-old Keyra Steinhardt in the Queensland town of Rockhampton. Prior to that Fraser had spent almost two decades behind bars for the rape of other women, including his defacto partner who was terminally ill with cancer. Fraser kept trophies from his victims. Police found the ponytails of three different women in Fraser’s flat but were not able ...

A Suitcase Floating In A Lake: The Tragic Story Of Rachel Pfitzner And Dean Shillingsworth

October 16, 2019 19:00 - 25 minutes - 23.1 MB

It was a warm spring day when two young boys were playing at Mandurama reserve in the Sydney suburb of Ambarvale. It was a place where families and friends could have a picnic, or cycle on bike paths. As the boys rode their bikes, something caught their eye. It looked like a suitcase, floating near the edge of a nearby duck pond. What they discovered was the body of two-year-old Dean Shillingsworth. Dr Xanthe Mallett is a forensic anthropologist and criminologist at the University of Newca...

The Somerton Man: One Of The World’s Most Baffling Mysteries

October 10, 2019 02:32 - 40 minutes - 36.7 MB

The case of the Somerton Man is one of the most baffling cases in modern criminal history. In 1948 the body of a man was found on Somerton Park Beach just south of Adelaide in South Australia. Despite a global effort to identify the remains, we still do not know who the man was, why he was there, and how he died. Fiona Ellis-Jones is a reporter and producer for the ABC. She speaks to Jessie Stephens about the case which is currently explored on her podcast, The Somerton Man Mystery and wil...

The Bus Stop Killer

October 03, 2019 04:52 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MB

Levi Bellfield has been charged and found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell, Amelie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy. Women who were linked by nothing other than the man who chose to kill them. Bellfield’s murders were baffling in their lack of motive, hindering law enforcement from figuring out who was responsible. Geoffrey Wansell is a London based journalist and author who has written and researched extensively the crimes of Levi Bellfield - who the...

The Man Who "Knows What Happened" To The Beaumont Children

September 26, 2019 01:42 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MB

The disappearance of The Beaumont Children is burned into the collective conscious of Australia. It’s one of the longest running cases in the nation’s history and has baffled law enforcement for more than half a century. Stuart Mullins grew up down the road from the Beaumont children in Adelaide. Over the years he has researched and co authored investigative writing into their disappearance. He walks us through the case, and why he believes he knows just who is responsible for the disappear...

What Really Happened To Azaria Chamberlain?

September 18, 2019 20:00 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MB

As the sun set over Uluru on August 17th, 1980, Lindy and Michael Chamberlain put their two month old baby Azaria to bed. What happened next is burnt into the collective consciousness of not just Australia but the world. This won’t be like most episodes of True Crime Conversations, mostly, because in this case there was no crime. Instead, it was one of the most significant and devastating miscarriages of justice Australia has ever seen. So impactful was the handling of this case that for...

Ivan Milat: What You Haven't Been Told About Australia's Best Known Serial Killer

September 11, 2019 20:00 - 49 minutes - 45.4 MB

It is speculated that Ivan Milat's days are numbered. Australia’s most notorious serial killer is. Milat is serving 7 concurrent life sentences for his horrific crimes. In this episode we take a look at the life of Ivan, to get inside the mind of one of our country’s worst serial killers. Mark Whittaker co-authored ‘Sins Of The Brother’, the most definitive work on the life and crimes of Ivan Milat. He joins Jessie Stephens to take us into the mind of one of the worst murderers in Austral...

The Fall: The Case Of Balcony Murderer Simon Gittany

September 05, 2019 01:58 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MB

In 2014 Simon Gittany was found guilty of throwing his 30 year old fiancé Lisa Harnum from the balcony of their shared 15th floor apartment. Simon maintained his innocence, saying that Lisa climbed over the railing of the balcony and fell to her death. Amy Dale was a court reporter at the time of this case and has subsequently written a book titled The Fall about Lisa’s murder. Jessie Stephens sits down with Amy to take us through the case, from the infamous CCTV footage of Simon in the ...

Samantha Knight: The Bondi School Girl Who Never Came Home

August 28, 2019 20:00 - 27 minutes - 25.4 MB

UPDATE: Since recording this episode, murderer and serial paedophile, Michael Guider, the man responsible for Samantha's death, has been released from jail. When Tess Knight got home on a winter’s night in August of 1986 her nine-year-old daughter Samantha was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t until 14 years later in February 2001 that a man named Michael Guider pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the young Bondi school girl. Guider, who was serving a sentence at the time for 60 child se...

Granny Evil: Australia's Most Infamous Matriarch

August 21, 2019 20:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MB

Kathleen Pettingill had ten children. All of them are either incarcerated, in witness protection, or dead. So, how did Kathleen become the head of one of the most prolific and violent crime families in modern Australian history? Jessie speaks with author Adrian Tame about the life and crimes of Kathleen Pettingill - a woman who throughout his years profiling her he has come to count as a friend. You can buy Adrian Tame’s book The Matriarch online and at all good book stores. CREDITS GUES...

The Beauty Queen Killer

August 14, 2019 20:00 - 1 hour - 57.8 MB

Christopher Wilder is the Australian serial killer responsible for the biggest man hunt in US history. Wilder lured his victims by posing as a talent agent and model scout and beauty pageants across America. His modus operandi of kidnapping, torture, sexual assault and ultimately murder, spoke so deeply of his utter hatred of women. In recent years it’s been speculated that Wilder is also responsible for one of the biggest cold cases in NSW criminal history; the Wanda Beach murders. Author...

A Killer Cop: Roger Rogerson Was More Than A Murderer

August 07, 2019 20:00 - 56 minutes - 52 MB

Roger Rogerson is one of the only Australian killers with a badge. A fraudster, drug dealer, and killer, he was finally stopped in a murder plot now known as one of the most recorded murder cases in Australian history. How did a celebrated detective not check where CCTV cameras were before murdering Jamie Gao? Why did those who stood in his way start to “disappear”? Duncan McNab is a former police person turned author and journalist who quite literally wrote the book on Roger Rogerson. He j...

A Mother And Daughter Went Missing And Nobody Noticed

July 31, 2019 20:00 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MB

When two-year old Khandalyce Pearce went missing police couldn’t understand why her mother wasn’t looking for her. But Khandalyce’s mother Karlie would never know her daughter was missing; Karlie's body was found in Belanglo State Forest eight years before her daughter’s name made national headlines. Author Ava Benny Morrison joins Jessie to step through the case of Karlie and Khandalyce and explain how law enforcement agencies around the country managed to solve the case of The Lost Girls....

The Serial Killer Who Inspired A Horror Film

July 24, 2019 20:00 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MB

Danny Rolling would become one of the most violent serial killers in modern America’s history. His crimes, spree-like in nature, inspired the 1996 horror film Scream. Rolling’s hatred of women, violent and abusive upbringing, and idolatry of Ted Bundy were all just elements that would contribute to his horrific crimes. Author and pop-culture journalist Maria Lewis takes us through the case of Danny Rolling - who would be dubbed The Gainesville Ripper - and just how truly violent and despica...

The Lady Vanishes: What Happened To Marion Barter

July 17, 2019 20:00 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MB

How did Marion Barter’s overseas holiday in 1997 become her last? Reporter Bryan Seymour, host of The Lady Vanishes podcast, takes Jessie through the case of missing person, Marion Barter. A beloved teacher and mum, Marion was living a happy and fulfilling life before she disappeared. So why did she sell her house and change her name before travelling overseas? And why did she return three weeks later only to drain her bank account of all savings? Or did she? Marion’s daughter Sally hasn’...

The Case Of The Bowraville Murders

July 10, 2019 20:00 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MB

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners should be advised that this episode contains the naming of deceased people, and the recounting of the circumstances leading to their deaths. Colleen Walker, Evelyn Greenup and Clinton Speedy-Duroux. These are the names of three children from the town of Bowraville who were murdered over five months across 1990 and 1991. There has only ever been one suspect in their murders but to this day they’ve never stood trial for those crimes. Author Dan...

Angel of Death: The Curse Of Dulcie Markham

July 03, 2019 20:00 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MB

Dulcie Markham, better known as The Angel Of Death, has been called Australia’s most beautiful bad woman. A key figure in the underworld gangs of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, Dulcie used her Hollywood good looks, rosy pink lips and whip smart mind to manipulate the most evil of mobsters. Author and historian Leigh Straw joins Jessie for this episode where she takes us through the life of Dulcie; how the 15-year-old started out in sex work in 1920s Wooloomooloo, rose to become one of the m...

No Footprints: The Mysterious Disappearance Of Maura Murray

June 26, 2019 20:00 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MB

On Monday 9th February 2004 Maura Murray vanished. She had crashed her car on a winding stretch of road in Woodsville New Hampshire USA. A local man named Butch Atwood witnessed the crash and called out to Maura asking if she needed him to call the police. She told him she’d already called car towing services and not to worry about it. But the problem was there was no phone service. Maura hadn’t called for help. Instead, in the 19 minutes it took for law enforcement to arrive, Maura’s car ...

"I've Been Kidnapped" The Case Of Belgian Backpacker Davine Arckens

June 19, 2019 20:00 - 52 minutes - 48.5 MB

When 24-year-old Belgian backpacker Davine Arckens reached out to a man on Gumtree about working on his farm she was excited. The 88 days of labour would mean she could stay in Australia on a tourist visa for an extra year. She couldn’t wait to spend more time in a country she thought was safe and full of nice people. When Davine met the man it didn’t take long for her to realise she’d made a terrible mistake. Driven to what felt like the middle of nowhere, Davine was convinced she was ho...