Australian Crime Stories

In May 1971 Qantas Flight 755 takes off from Sydney carrying 116 passengers and 12 crew. Soon after a man calling himself "Mr Brown" tells Qantas there is an altitude sensitive bomb on board the aircraft. With the plane unable to safely return to the ground, those onboard get caught in one of Australia's most extraordinary aviation emergencies.

Go deeper into the case behind the story of 'Seventeen Traces'.

When Rosa Simper is murdered inside her Cheltenham home in December 1977, police are left trying to reconstruct what happened during the final hours of her life. There is no obvious suspect, and the usual lines of inquiry produce little. Slowly, the investigation begins to turn on a collection of tiny traces scattered through the house.

Up near Bogie in North Queensland, the Schwarz and Tighe family take on Sutherland Station, a massive cattle property out in the bush. At first, things are pretty good with their neighbour, Darryl Young, and the two sides even help each other rebuild the fence between their properties. But once cattle start wandering across the boundary, a fairly ordinary problem between neighbours begins to turn into something much more serious.

In the Upper Hunter town of Aberdeen, John Price has built a secure life around his children, his work and the brick house he calls home. When Katherine Knight moves in, affection gradually gives way to jealousy, violence and a struggle over their future. By 2000, number 84 St Andrews Street becomes the setting for one of Australia’s most gruesome crimes.

Go deeper into the case behind the story of 'The Ether Man'.

In 1966, Brisbane is gripped by a series of attacks on women inside and around their homes. The offender appears without warning, often carrying cloth soaked in anaesthetic chemicals, before disappearing again. The police and public call him the Ether Man — and for months, nobody knows who he is.

On the night of the 23rd of December 1909, yacht club employee Frank Passmore wakes to find an older woman sitting outside the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Soon after, the young caretaker of the yacht Banshee, appears and tells Frank the woman is his granny. Frank can tell they have both been drinking. Before long, the pair climb into a dinghy and row out across Perth Water, disappearing into the darkness,

On the 10th of July 2001, police enter a North Ryde home and find three members of the Gonzales family murdered. Teddy, Loiva and their eighteen-year-old daughter Clodine appear to have been brutally attacked one by one throughout the house. Signs of robbery and racial hatred point investigators in several directions.