Australian True Crime

By Meshel Laurie

Society & Culture

What's Australian True Crime about?

Think nothing ever happens in your town? Australia's suburbs are home to some of the most mysterious and disturbing true crime cases in the world.

Meshel Laurie is a true crime obsessive. Emily Webb is a true crime author. And together with expert interviews with writers, victims, investigators and perpetrators, they probe the underbelly of our towns and suburbs, and uncover the darkness at the heart of Australian life.

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Arson. - #139

01.15.2020

“Two things can be true at once,” and arson is part in Australia’s bushfire story. Dr Troy McEwan is an associate professor in clinical and forensic psychology at Monash university. Her research is focussed on the assessment and treatment of ...

Australian True Crime episodes:

01.15.2020 Arson. - #139 “Two things can be true at once,” and arson is part in Australia’s bushfire story. Dr Troy McEwan is an associate professor in clinical and forensic psychology at Monash university. Her research is focussed on the assessment and treatment of ...
01.08.2020 Fiona’s fight to find her husband Bruce’s body - #138 Fiona Splitt started an intense advocacy campaign in Queensland to have the "no body, no parole" legislation introduced after the murder of her partner Bruce Schuler in 2012. Bruce was gold fossicking in the remote Palmerville Station area in Cape ...
12.04.2019 Who Killed Leanne Holland Pt 2 - Graham Stafford Interview #137 Graham Stafford served 15 years for the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend's 12-year-old sister Leanne. The conviction was overturned in 2009, but Stafford is still locked in a legal battle with the QLD Police Service to have a ...
11.27.2019 Who Killed Leanne Holland? Part 1 - #136 12-year-old Leanne Holland was brutally raped and murdered in Ipswich, QLD in 1991. Her sister's boyfriend, Graham Stafford was convicted of the crime, but he maintains his innocence, and the investigation has been found wanting.Robin Bowles included his story in ...
11.20.2019 Shirley Finn, Dirty Girl - #135 Perth Brothel owner Shirley Finn's 1975 unsolved murder looms large over the city, with men at the highest levels of government and policing suspected of involvement. Journalist Juliet Wills, author of Dirty Girl: The State Sanctioned Murder of Brothel Madam ...
11.13.2019 Crime and Sport: Australia's Great Passions - #134 From bank robbing football players to drug-dealing football players and stand-over men, (who used to be football players). Ok, they're not all football players. In their new book "Gangland, this Unsporting Life" Susanna Lobez and James Morton have applied their ...
11.06.2019 Julie's Big Drug Importation Adventure - #133 When Julie was a teenager in 1970s Australia, she and her friends decided to try their hands at drug smuggling. It didn't turn out well, despite the assistance of the Victorian Narcotics Squad.Show notes for Episode 133:Your hosts are Meshel ...
10.30.2019 Jock Palfreeman's Quasi Bulgarian Parole - #132 Australian Jock Palfreeman has been in a Bulgarian prison since 28 December 2007 when he was taken into custody for the stabbing murder of Andrei Monov. He says Monov and his friends were attacking two young Roma men, known colloquially ...
10.28.2019 Re-Issue: Milat Family Insider Special Extra - #131 The “Milat family insider” quoted extensively in Australian media this week is actually our friend Amanda Howard, from the "Monsters Who Murder" podcast. She gives us an update and an insight into her work, as well as a prediction as ...
10.28.2019 Re-Issue: The Woman Who Thinks Ivan Milat is Innocent - #130 Amanda Howard, the Serial Killer Whisperer joins us again to talk about the holes she believes are in the case against Ivan Milat. Amanda corresponds with Milat in jail.Show notes:Your hosts are Meshel Laurie and Emily WebbWith thanks to Amanda ...
10.23.2019 Dead Man Walking: The Killing of Michael McGurk - #129 Michael McGurk was murdered with a single gunshot to the head outside his family home in Cremorne in 2009. He described himself as a businessman but others, including politicians and royalty said he was an extortionist, a fraudster and an ...
10.16.2019 The Abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon - #128 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe was the kind of well-mannered, responsible girl often entrusted to care for younger children. She was no match though for a grown man who seized the opportunity to snatch her and her 4-year-old friend from Adelaide Oval ...
10.09.2019 Jack and Stacey and Ice in the Latrobe Valley - #127 22-year-old Jack Nankervis was stabbed 70 times by a teenager he didn’t know. His girlfriend Stacey is still trying to put her life back together five years later and understand why it really happened and why no one else seems ...
10.02.2019 Dianne Brimble: By Her Ex-husband Mark - #126 Dianne Brimble died an unnecessary death in the company of strange, cruel men on a cruise she’d saved years for. She’s had no justice, but her ex-husband still fights for her dignity. Read the Inquest into the death of Dianne ...
09.25.2019 Operation Zhivago: A Narelle Fraser Case - #125 Narelle is back with a case that’s very close to her heart because it’s connected to her time working with her favourite boss Lorraine Blackwell at Broadmeadows CPS. Lorraine pioneered a victim-focussed approach to the investigation of sexual assault and ...
09.18.2019 Is Sydney Even Sydney Without The Seedy Cross? - #124 Sexy gangster, porn star, part-time models. A letter bomb and a tv home shopping star having sex with another tv home shopping star in a police station before faking his own death and escaping Australia. How has there never been ...
09.11.2019 The Wettenhall Family Murders Rocked the Small Community of Barrabool - #123 The Wettenhall Family murders rocked the small community of Barrabool in Victoria. The revelations that came to light in the aftermath however, reflected the sad state of affairs for so many living in regional Australia.Warning: please be advised this episode ...
09.04.2019 Australia's Badlands: The Palmerville Station Murder - #122 From Far North Queensland's Cape York comes the terrifying story of the Strubers of Palmerville Station who terrorised gold prospectors for years until they eventually turned to bloody murder. No, this story isn't from the 19th century, this is the ...
08.28.2019 Cardinal Pell's Next Destination, Ararat - #121 Dr Karen Owen designed the treatment program for sex offenders used by Corrections Victoria. She helps us understand what’s in store for Cardinal George Pell now that he’s leaving the Melbourne Assessment Prison and heading for more long term accommodation.Warning: ...
08.21.2019 The Falconio Mystery Continues - #120 Bradley John Murdoch isn't a good man, but did he murder Peter Falconio? That's the question posed by inimitable True Crime author Robin Bowles in her book Dead Centre and she joins us to explain her exhaustive investigations. Most shocking ...
08.14.2019 Greenough Murders: Fighting to Keep a Killer in Jail - #119 Karen MacKenzie and her three children were murdered in their Western Australian home in 1993. For her sister Evalyn, the nightmare never ends. She joins us to explain the many ways in which it’s impacted on her life and continues ...
08.07.2019 Missing But Not Forgotten: A Sister's Story - #118 It’s National Missing Persons Week in Australia. You can’t look at a missing persons case without at least considering it through the crime filter, even when the last person to see your little brother alive, was your sister. This was ...
07.31.2019 Remembering Bree - #117 The pain of living with loss and injustice. An extraordinarily intimate kitchen table conversation between the family of Bree Jones who died of a drug overdose at the age of 16, at a party in 1995. No one has ever ...
07.24.2019 Murder in Albury - Kim Meredith's Parents and the 5 Minute Window: A Belinda Neil Case - #116 Bob and June Meredith were living a simple but idyllic life with their teenage children in Albury in 1996, until a chance encounter with a stranger tore it apart. They join us to tell us about the murder of their ...
07.17.2019 Death on the Derwent - #115 One man’s mysterious disappearance has become a decade-long tragedy for two Tasmanian women, from different sides of the tracks. Author Robin Bowles has developed a close friendship with one of the women and joins us to talk about her new ...
07.10.2019 Journalist Andrew Rule's Scariest Case - #114 It's easy to forget it takes a lot of courage to write stories about bad guys week after week. Andrew Rule has irritated some of the baddest in the business and every so often it gets a little bit scary. ...
07.03.2019 My Brother the Paedophile Priest - #113 Margaret Harrod and her twin brother Michael both dedicated their lives to God, she as a nun and he as a priest. Their family was the envy of their Catholic community, but there were many secrets inside their home and ...
06.26.2019 A Kiwi Teen Almost Killed the Queen. Kia Ora cuz! - #112 In 1981, a psychopathic New Zealand teenager came very close to assassinating Queen Elizabeth. Embarrassed police not only covered it up but sent him away to Australia, a free man. Why haven't we seen that on the Crown? Former high-ranking ...
06.19.2019 The De Gruchy Family Murders - #111 Belinda Neil was settling in on her first day in the homicide squad when she took a phone call that would change the course of her career. An unassuming suburban mother and two of her three teenage children had been ...
06.16.2019 Anne Hamilton Byrne and The Family - #110 From humble beginnings in suburban Melbourne to reincarnation as Jesus Christ, a cohort of devoted, well-heeled followers and an enviable real estate portfolio, Anne Hamilton Byrne who died in a nursing home last week really was the quintessential 20th Century ...
06.16.2019 Lex De Man on Anne Hamilton Byrne's Death - #109 When former Detective Lex De Man received a text reading simply, "The Witch is Dead!" he knew exactly what it meant. Since attending a school fire in the small Victorian town of Monbulk in 1987, Lex's life has been consumed ...
06.12.2019 The David Hookes Matter with Charlie Bezzina - #108 Homicide Detective Charlie Bezzina received a phone call about a man who'd been punched outside a popular St Kilda pub during an altercation with a bouncer. The man was clinging to life, but the prognosis wasn't good. The caller said ...
06.05.2019 Frankston Serial Killer Investigation Re Issue - #107 Charlie Bezzina was lead investigator on the Frankston Serial Killer Case in which Carmel and Brian's daughter Natalie was the final victim. In this episode Charlie talks us through the investigation.Warning: please be advised this episode contains graphic content.Show notes ...
06.05.2019 26 Years After Our Daughter's Murder, We Need Help - #106 The Frankston Serial Killer took their 17-year-old daughter Natalie in 1993, and Carmel and Brian have lived through many more challenges since then. Now they're looking at eviction from their home of 30 years and they're very reluctantly asking for ...
05.31.2019 ATC Extra. The Family of the Deceased - #105 Emily is joined by Sandra Charlton, the cousin of Vicki Arnold. Vicki was the woman accused of murdering her best friend Julie-Anne Leahey before killing herself in this week's episode of Australian True Crime. Sandra tells us what it's like ...
05.29.2019 A Convenient Murder Suicide: Who Killed Vicki Arnold and Julie-Anne Leahy? - #104 BFFs to the end, Vicki and Julie-Anne died together on a lonely track in Far North QLD in 1991. The police quickly ruled it a murder suicide but the families, the community, the Australian public and relentless local journalist Robert ...
05.22.2019 The Crimes and Times of Uncle Jack Charles - #103 Jack Charles, known respectfully and affectionately as Uncle Jack Charles is a survivor who has much to tell about life, starting from the impact of being one of the Stolen Generation; Indigenous children forcibly removed from their families as a ...
05.17.2019 Milat Family Insider Special Extra - #102 The “Milat family insider” quoted extensively in Australian media this week is actually our friend Amanda Howard, from the "Monsters Who Murder" podcast. She gives us an update and an insight into her work, as well as a prediction as ...
05.15.2019 Karlie and Khandalyce: The Lost Girls with Ava Benny-Morrison - #101 How did the remains of toddler Khandalyce Pearce-Stevenson end up in a suitcase by the side of a highway in South Australia? How did her mother Karlie’s remains end up over a thousand kilometres away in the notorious Belanglo State ...
05.08.2019 Snowtown: The Bodies in the Barrels Murders with Jeremy Pudney - #100 It's almost 20 years since the discovery of human remains in barrels in a bank vault in the tiny spot of Snowtown, South Australia. The shocking discovery of eight dismembered bodies in six barrels made headlines around the world. In ...
05.01.2019 The Fight to Bring an Alleged Pedophile Headmistress Back to Australia to Face Justice: Survivor Dassi Erlich's Story - #99 Dassi Erlich is living a life today she literally could never have imagined as a child. She couldn’t have imagined it because so much of what the rest of us take for granted was hidden from her by her parents ...
04.24.2019 The Day They Blew Up The Police Station: The Russell Street Bombing - #98 Retired Victoria Police Chief Inspector Rob Bailey has seen a lot over the course of his career. Among many other things, he was part of the legendary Victorian armed robbery squad in its heyday, and he was an eyewitness to ...
04.18.2019 Will A Sex Offenders Register in Australia Really Protect Children? - #97 Bruce Morcombe and Hetty Johnston have conflicting views on Peter Dutton’s proposed Australian sex offenders register. Which one of them thinks Derryn Hinch is dreaming? Warning: please be advised this episode contains graphic content.Show notes for Episode 97:Your hosts are ...
04.10.2019 Newcastle Serial Killers Cold Case? Gordana Kotevski - #96 Was 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski one of many victims abducted and disappeared by the same group of perpetrators, as is now suspected by the man who presided over her inquest and the Detective who captured Ivan Milat? Gordana's mother Peggy and ...
04.06.2019 The Serial Killer Premonitions of Dave Warner - #95 Dave Warner wrote a book about a fictional serial killer, and then it came true. This is an extra episode of Australian True Crime featuring a fascinating side story from one of Australia's longest running unsolved serial killer investigations.Warning: please ...
04.03.2019 Notorious 'Black Widow' Killer Patricia Byers with Megan Norris - #94 Megan Norris was one of our very first guests on Australian True Crime. In Episode 3 she spoke to us about her excellent book, On Father’s Day, in which she tells the story of Cindy Gambino, whose ex-husband Robert Farquharson ...
03.27.2019 Missing Since 1978: The Search for Sydney Couple Stephen Lapthorne and Michelle Pope - #93 The disappearance of Stephen Lapthorne and Michelle Pope in Sydney has been unsolved for almost 41 years. Craig Foskett is an old mate of Stephen's and he and a group of guys known as the Turramurra Old Boys have decided ...
03.20.2019 Catching the Narong Road Rapist with Liz Porter - #92 Liz Porter is a novelist and a journalist with a passion for the real CSI. It’s a combination which means her true crime books read like suspenseful thriller fiction and you’re about to find out that that’s how she talks ...
03.13.2019 From Outlaw Motorcycle Gang to Journalism: Mahmood Fazal's Story - #91 Dandenong-raised Mahmood Fazal, is a university-educated former member of an outlaw motorcycle club who has a unique perspective from the inside. Now as a journalist, Mahmood is exploring the fascination with violence and the real cost of this obsession.Warning: please ...
03.06.2019 Queensland Vampire Killer Tracey Wigginton with Megan Norris - #90 Dubbed the "Vampire Killer", Queensland woman Tracey Wigginton served 22 years in prison for the murder of 47-year-old Edward Baldock in 1989. Wigginton, then 24, and three other women lured Baldock into a car and took him to a park ...

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