Evidence Locker True Crime

On a windy January day in 1965, two fifteen-year-old best friends walked into the sand dunes at Wanda Beach near Sydney. They never came home. What followed was one of the largest investigations in Australian history, yet the killer vanished without a trace. Sixty years later, three suspects have emerged, but no one has ever been charged. Was it a teenage surfer, a serial killer, or someone far more sinister?

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
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For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
50% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Books
Alan J. Whiticker - "WANDA: The Untold Story of the Wanda Beach Murders" (New Holland Publishers, 2003)
Documentaries
Crime Investigation Australia - "The Wanda Beach Murders"
Christopher Wilder: The Beauty Queen Killer
Web
Wikipedia - Wanda Beach Murders
Wikipedia - Derek Percy
Wikipedia - Christopher Wilder
National Film and Sound Archive - Nine News: the Wanda Beach Murders
Australian Missing Persons Register - Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt
News Articles
Australian serial killer Christopher Wilder linked to the Wanda Beach murders 
Loved ones of the two girls murdered at Sydney's Wanda Beach...
Ivan Milat's Family Reacts After Chris Minns Considers Inquiry Into More Unsolved Murders
Podcast
The Backpacker Murders

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios

This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archival materials.

Between 1959 and 1987, a series of brutal attacks in the forests and lakesides of Finland and Sweden left multiple victims dead – and investigators haunted by their similarities. From Tulilahti and Lake Bodom to Appojaure and the deck of the Viking Sally, the victims were ordinary people, asleep and vulnerable, when violence struck without warning. Some cases were solved. Most weren’t. 
What links these murders? Could they be the work of the same person, or do they reveal something darker about the illusion of safety in the wild?
This is a special episode that brings together cases previously featured on Evidence Locker, uncovering the patterns, suspects, and unanswered questions that continue to grip true crime researchers to this day.

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
50% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Documentaries
The Confessions of Thomas Quick 
Murhan DNA: Bodominjärvin murhat
Web
Wikipedia: Appojaure Murders
Wikipedia: Kytäjä
Wikipedia: Lake Bodom Murders
Kyllikki Saari Murder (1953)
Wikipedia: Tulilahden kaksoismurha
Articles
Serial Killer has second thoughts - The Confessions of Thomas Quick
The Lake Bodom Murders
Campsite Killer: The Unsolved Mystery of the Lake Bodom Murders
ForenSeek: The Tulilahti Double Murder

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios

This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archive materials.

In July 1984, beneath Sweden’s midnight sun, a remote campsite near Lake Appojaure became the scene of a brutal double murder. Dutch tourists Marinus and Janny Stegehuis were stabbed to death as they slept in their tent, an attack that shocked the nation and remains unresolved.
This episode marks a milestone for The Evidence Locker: released in celebration of our 250th episode, it is also a remastered re-release of our very first case. We revisit the Appojaure tent killings, the failed investigation, and the later false confession by Thomas Quick, whose story collapsed under forensic scrutiny.
Decades on, the truth remains buried in the wilderness, and the real killer has never been identified.

In the summer of 1960, four teenagers went camping at Lake Bodom. In the pre-dawn hours, an unknown assailant attacked them inside their tent, slashing them with a knife and hitting them with a blunt object. Of the four, only 18-year-old Nils Gustafsson survived, narrowly escaping death. 45 years later, he was charged with killing his friends, but acquitted. To this day, the mystery of what happened at Lake Bodom on that sultry night haunts the people of Finland.

Special thanks: Pahan Äärellä Podcast

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Documentary
Murhan DNA – Bodominjärvin murhat
Web
Wikipedia
Murha.com
Hypnosis of Nils Gustafsson
Articles
True Crime: Lake Bodom Murders
Campsite Killer: The Unsolved Mystery of the Lake Bodom Murders
When Anneli Happo, 72, heard of the events of Lake Bodom…
A Killing at Lake Bodom: a nation looking for a murderer
The Lake Bodom Murders
Espoo politician is sure he knows who the Bodom killer was
The dark secret of Lake Bodom
Double Murder at Tulilahti
We lost the Butcher of Lake Bodom
The Double Death at Tulilahti

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios
This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archive materials.

July 1959. Two young women on a cycling holiday vanished from a Finnish campsite. Eine Nyyssönen, 21, and Riitta Pakkanen, 23, were found buried in a bog three weeks later, marked by a sharpened stick. Over 60 years later, this brutal double murder remains unsolved.

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Books
Pennanen, Mikko: Tulilahden murhamysteeri 
Keskisarja, Teemu: Tulilahti 
Markkula, Hannes: Suomalainen murha 1953-1990
Documentary
Tulilahden murhenäytelmä (1959 - Suomen Filmiteollisuus)
Ei vanhene koskaan: Tulilahden kaksoismurha - syyllinen vai syytön (1997)
YLE Elävä arkisto: Takaisin Tulilahdelle
Web
Wikipedia: Tulilahden kaksoismurha
ForenSeek: The Tulilahti Double Murder - Interview with Mikko Pennanen
Deserted Finland: Tulilahti Murder Scene
Articles
Unsolved Mysteries: The Double Murder at the Tulilahti Campsite 
Two Young Women Killed Whilst Camping in Finland 
Tulilahden kaksoismurha ei selvinnyt – Pääepäilty hirttäytyi vankisellissään 
Riitta, 23, ja Eine, 21, ovat yhä vailla oikeutta 
Tulilahden kaksoismurha: kuka surmasi julmasti nuoret naiset? 

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios

This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archival materials.

On a winter evening in 1931, a soft-spoken insurance agent was lured from his Liverpool home by a strange telephone message. The address he searched for didn’t exist. By the time he returned, his wife had been brutally murdered. Who was the caller? Was the alibi a masterstroke of deception? Or did someone exploit the perfect opportunity?
Tried. Convicted. Acquitted.
 Nearly a century later, the murder of Julia Wallace remains one of the most baffling cases in British criminal history.

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Book
Jonathan Goodman – The Killing of Julia Wallace
Web
The Julia Wallace Murder Foundation
Wikipedia – William Herbert Wallace
Wikipedia – R v Wallace (1931)
Articles
The Unredacted – The Killing of Julia Wallace: An Impossible Murder
Chess Notes by Edward Winter – Wallace Case
The Spectator Archive – "The Wallace Case"
Murder Archives: Liverpool Echo Retrospectives

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios
This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archival materials.

Every December, thousands of letters addressed to Santa are sent to North Pole, Alaska. Boxes full of letters are then sent to North Pole Middle School, where they are included in the 6th Grade curriculum: North Pole’s 11 and 12-year-olds are nominated as Santa’s little helpers and reply to all the letters on Santa’s behalf.
But in April 2006, the peace in this snow globe of a town was shattered when six 7th Graders hatched a plan to kill their classmates. The would-be attackers had drawn up a “naughty list” of kids at school that they wanted to murder in one violent, coordinated attack. Just the previous year, they were acting as elves, writing letters to other children all over the country. A couple of months later, they were gearing up to be monsters.

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources 
YouTube
Tour of North Pole Alaska
Articles
Last night’s TV: Death in Santaland
Alaskan boys planned school massacre
North Pole, Alaska
Bad tidings
A man named Santa Claus was elected to city council in North Pole, Alaska

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: "Nordic Medieval" by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios
This True Crime Podcast was researched using open-source or archive materials.

In May 1999, three members of the Orderud family were found shot to death in their home in rural Norway. The victims — Kristian and Marie Orderud and their daughter Anne — had been killed in the dead of night in what appeared to be a cold and calculated execution. Despite four people being convicted of complicity, no one has ever been held legally responsible for pulling the trigger. What followed was one of the most controversial criminal cases in modern Norwegian history. In this episode, we unpack the family tensions, forensic mysteries, legal battles, and lingering questions that still surround the Orderud case today.

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
NRK – Orderud: Det uløste trippeldrapet (Full archive)
VG Special – Bevisene etter trippeldrapet på Orderud gård
Store norske leksikon – Orderud-saken
News in English – Orderuds seek reopening of triple murder probe
News in English – Orderud convicts released
Wikipedia – Orderud Case
Global Freedom of Expression – Egeland and Hanseid v. Norway (re: trial publicity)
HubPages – The Orderud Case: Triple-Murder in Norway

Between 1970 and 1971, a series of brutal murders terrified the streets of Bucharest. The victims were mostly women — attacked at night, bitten, and mutilated. Their killer became known as The Vampire of Bucharest.
His crimes were frenzied and disturbing, leaving investigators to wonder whether they were dealing with a deranged killer or a man driven by superstition and obsession. He broke into homes, assaulted his victims, and sometimes drank their blood. When police finally caught him, the case exposed deep social anxieties in communist Romania — about violence, repression, and the darkness beneath a society that demanded silence.
Listen now to uncover the true story behind Romania’s most infamous serial killer.

Books: Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Documentaries
Web
Wikipedia – Ion Rîmaru
Articles
“Tatăl și fiul – criminali în serie” – Libertatea.ro (RO)
“Vampirul din București” – Realitatea.net (RO)
Interview with Dr. Tudorel Butoi – TVR Info
“Ion Rîmaru – the Vampire” – Evenimentul Zilei (RO)
Historic Mysteries – The Vampire of Bucharest
Romania Insider – "The Butcher of Bucharest"

Created & Produced by Sonya Lowe
Narrated by Noel Vinson
Music: “Nordic Medieval” by Marcus Bressler
Background track: Doblado Studios: https://www.youtube.com/c/DobladoStudios

In 1994, a custody dispute in South Carolina ended with a mother vanishing with her infant daughter. Dorothy Lee Barnett, accused of violating a court order, disappeared without a trace — along with 11-month-old Savannah.
For nearly two decades, the pair lived under new identities across the world — first in Europe, then South Africa, then Australia — as authorities searched for clues. In 2013, an international investigation finally uncovered the truth. Dorothy had been living as Alexandria Maria Canton, and Savannah, now a young woman, had grown up unaware of her past.
The case became one of the most remarkable parental abduction stories in modern history — a tale of love, fear, deception, and the long reach of justice.
Listen now to hear the full story of the mother who fled across the world — and the daughter who never knew.
Books:
Read collections of The Evidence Locker Files, available in print and digital editions.
Follow us on: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok
For more information, visit: Evidence Locker Website
Listen ad-free: Visit our page at Patreon
25% of Evidence Locker Patreon proceeds are donated to support the Doe Network, solving international cold cases. To learn more, visit: https://www.doenetwork.org/

Resources
Documentaries
NBC Dateline: "Finding Savanna" 
CBS 48 Hours: "Dear Savanna" 
Web
Family Abduction Watch
Articles
Dorothy Lee Barnett: Where is the Kidnapper Today?
Savanna Todd: Where is Dorothy Lee Barnett's Daughter Today?
Woman who kidnapped her own daughter during bitter divorce shares tales of nearly 20 years on the run
48 Hours' to feature baby Savanna abduction from Isle of Palms
Unsolved Mysteries Wiki: Dorothy Barnett Case