Bailey Sarian

Close your eyes and step back to 1986, when a teenage girl escaped from a suburban Perth house and exposed Australia's most terrifying couple. David and Catherine Birnie abducted, raped, and murdered four women—Mary Neilson, Susanna Candy, Noelene Patterson, and Denise Brown—before burying their bodies in shallow forest graves [citation:8]. They nearly killed a fifth victim, a 17-year-old who fled and led police directly to the couple [citation:8]. Both pleaded guilty to all charges, receiving life sentences [citation:7]. David hanged himself in prison in 2005 after his medication was withheld and his computer confiscated [citation:1]. Catherine, deemed a "parasite" and "the most evil couple in Australia," has been denied parole multiple times, remaining behind bars [citation:14][citation:8]. Their story asks: would you kill for love, or was this something far more sinister?

Close your eyes and travel back to the early 1990s, when a quiet Australian forest became a graveyard for young travellers seeking adventure. A story of terror, a nation's shock, and a monster who showed no remorse. Ivan Milat, a 49-year-old road worker from a violent family, lured seven backpackers—three Germans, two Britons, and two Australians—into the Belanglo State Forest, where he shot and stabbed them before burying their bodies in shallow graves. He was finally caught after a British survivor escaped and alerted police. During his trial, Milat's only regret was that he "wouldn't be able to go fishing anymore." He refused to confess, denied his victims' families any closure, and died in 2019 without ever revealing whether there were more bodies hidden in the bush.

Close your eyes and step into the quiet suburbs of 1970s Sydney, where a teenage babysitter offered comfort to young families—and became one of Australia's most prolific female serial killers. Helen Patricia Moore was just 17 when she began smothering infants and toddlers in her care. She killed her baby stepbrother Andrew, then her 16-month-old cousin Susan, and went on to murder at least three more children, leaving others with permanent brain damage. She even attended the funerals of her victims, placing flowers on their coffins. When police finally arrested her, she confessed without remorse, saying she killed out of boredom. Let this chilling story of the babysitter killer carry you into a deep and restless sleep.

A teenage boy from rural Kentucky, obsessed with vampire role-playing games, convinced a group of friends he was an immortal being who needed blood to survive [citation:2][citation:10]. Calling himself Vesago, Rod Ferrell led his so-called "Vampire Clan" in dark rituals, branding followers with symbols and drinking blood in graveyards [citation:2][citation:15]. In November 1996, his fantasy turned fatal when Ferrell traveled to Florida and brutally murdered the parents of his friend Heather Wendorf with a crowbar [citation:2][citation:6]. The bodies were marked with a "V," and the killers fled, only to be captured three days later in Louisiana [citation:2][citation:3]. At just 16, Ferrell became the youngest person on death row, though his sentence was later commuted to life [citation:2][citation:15].

In the spring of 2018, after four decades of terrorizing California as the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo was finally brought to justice. A former police officer, he was linked to 13 murders and at least 50 rapes spanning from 1975 to 1986 [citation:1][citation:6]. Investigators cracked the cold case using genetic genealogy, uploading DNA from crime scenes to a public database to find his distant relatives, leading them to his Citrus Heights home [citation:7][citation:12]. After his arrest, DeAngelo pleaded guilty in 2020, receiving multiple life sentences without parole [citation:5][citation:9]. This is the untold story of how modern science caught a monster who thought he had vanished forever.

On a cold January afternoon in 1892, a 19-year-old woman chased her former lover down a Memphis street and slashed her throat from ear to ear in front of horrified witnesses. Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward had been secretly engaged, planning to elope and live as husband and wife . But when their love letters were discovered, their families forced them apart. Freda moved on while Alice's desperation grew, leading her to pocket her father's razor and commit murder . The crime made national headlines, but the real shock was Alice's motive: a same-sex love deemed insane by Victorian society . She was declared insane, institutionalized, and died six years later under mysterious circumstances .

Was Leonarda Cianciulli a loving mother driven to sacrifice for her son, or a cold-blooded serial killer who revelled in her crimes? Known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio," she murdered three women in wartime Italy, turning their bodies into soap and their blood into teacakes [citation:1]. She was convinced that only human sacrifice would save her son from the war [citation:1]. Yet she also wrote chillingly that her final victim's flesh made the best soap [citation:11]. This episode explores the terrifying question: was it a dark delusion born of grief, or was she simply a psychopath hiding in plain sight?

What happened to Natalee Holloway? The 18-year-old vanished during a 2005 high school trip to Aruba, sparking an international mystery that gripped the world. The prime suspect, Joran van der Sloot, was arrested and released multiple times [citation:5][citation:3]. He was never charged in her disappearance, but in October 2023, he finally confessed to beating her to death on the beach after she refused his advances and dumping her body in the sea [citation:11]. Her remains have never been found, but her family now has the closure of knowing the truth [citation:5].

What happened to Natalee Holloway? The 18-year-old vanished during a 2005 high school trip to Aruba, sparking an international mystery that gripped the world. The prime suspect, Joran van der Sloot, was arrested and released multiple times [citation:5][citation:3]. He was never charged in her disappearance, but in October 2023, he finally confessed to beating her to death on the beach after she refused his advances and dumping her body in the sea [citation:11]. Her remains have never been found, but her family now has the closure of knowing the truth [citation:5].

Close your eyes and consider the bizarre death of Phoebe Handsjuk, a 24‑year‑old Melbourne woman found at the bottom of a 12‑storey garbage chute in 2010. The coroner ruled it a “freak accident” caused by a drug‑induced sleepwalking state, but her family never accepted that verdict. With her boyfriend from a powerful legal family, unanswered questions about blood in her apartment, and police failings, her story remains a chilling mystery of what truly happened that night.