This week Nicola and Di chat with the talented and brave Vikki Petraitis. Vikki is best known as a true crime writer and Casefile podcaster, who created The Frankston Murders series. Casefile is one of the most popular true crime podcasts around, topping the Apple charts with millions of downloads per month, so it was a thrill to get to hear some of the incredible stories from Vikki herself. As well as writing 18 books and having a top-rating podcast, Vikki is also a school teacher by day, which is where she has honed her wonderful storytelling abilities. 

In this conversation, we dive deep into The Frankston Murders and hear how Vikki still gets a bit spooked to this day about what went on in the suburbs of Melbourne back in the early 90s. Vikki shares how she was out on patrol with police on the night of one of the victims, Natalie Russell’s murder, and how that motivated her to tell the story as a local community member. We talk about the way that the police disregarded the evidence at the time and the danger of what happens when women aren’t believed. 

We also chat about how this book became a Casefile podcast, and the power of podcasting in not only sharing stories, but in some cases, making a real difference and getting laws changed. This was certainly the goal for Vikki - the Casefile team decided to release the podcast in 2023, the year that serial killer Paul Denyer was due for parole, and through their hard work they managed to get his parole bid denied and a law changed in parliament so that he can never apply again. 

Vikki shares her theories on why she thinks many women are fascinated by true crime podcasts, her own addiction to writing true crime stories and why she believes that podcasts are one of the most powerful platforms around. 

This is such a fascinating conversation with Vikki and we thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her. We hope you love it as much as we did! 

Follow Vikki on IG here

Buy Vikki’s latest book The Unbelieved here 

Listen to The Frankston Murders on the Casefile podcast here 

Find out more about Vikki’s work and true crime books here

Follow Nicola and Di on IG here

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