It starts with the smell.

Long before police opened a bank vault in Snowtown and found eight barrels of human remains soaking in acid, there was a quiet boy in Inala digging tunnels under his family home, torturing bugs in jars and learning all the wrong lessons about power, pain and “cleansing” the world.

In this first part of our deep dive into the Snowtown “bodies in the barrels” murders, host Shawnee traces the story back to its true beginning:

• John Bunting’s childhood in Inala, his sexual abuse, and his obsession with torture and Nazi ideology
  

• The twisted “protector” who taught him to see paedophiles, gay men and trans people as the same enemy
  

• His move to Salisbury North and the formation of his inner circle: Robert Wagner, Vanessa (Barry) Lane and Mark Haydon
  

• The first known murders: Clinton Trezise, Ray Davies, Suzanne Allen, Michelle Gardner & Vanessa Lane
  

• How tunnels, sheds, welfare fraud and plastic barrels became part of a system of “cleansing” that would end in a bank vault in Snowtown
  

This isn’t just a story about what police found in a small-town bank. It’s about abuse, hate, poverty and complicity — and how they combined to create a killer who believed he was doing the world a favour.

⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains discussion of child sexual abuse, torture, homophobia, transphobia, graphic violence and murder. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

Listen to Part One now, and follow You’re Killing Me so you don’t miss Part Two of Snowtown: The Bodies in the Barrels.

They called themselves vampires. They killed a sixteen-year-old girl for fun. In this episode, Shawnee explores the chilling murder of Stacey Mitchell — how a runaway teenager met two lovers locked in a shared psychosis, and how their fantasy of blood and devotion ended in a wheelie bin behind a Perth house.

In 1986, the quiet Perth suburb of Willagee hid a secret darker than anyone could imagine.

Behind the door of 3 Moorhouse Street, David and Catherine Birnie lured young women into what looked like an ordinary home — but it was a house of torture and death.

Over just four weeks, four women vanished: Mary Neilson, Susannah Candy, Noelene Patterson, and Denise Brown. Each was trapped, brutalised, and murdered. The Birnies thought no one would ever know.

Then came Kate Moir — a 17-year-old who escaped barefoot into the night and ended a month-long killing spree that shocked Australia.

This multi-part investigation traces the childhoods, crimes, and psychology of Australia’s most infamous killer couple — and the survivor whose courage brought them down.

Featuring real court records, survivor accounts, and archival reporting from ABC News, The West Australian, Crime Investigation Australia, and Casefile True Crime.

Australia’s vast outback has always promised freedom — but for seven unsuspecting backpackers, it became a place of horror.

Between 1989 and 1992, young travellers began vanishing along New South Wales highways. Their remains were later found buried deep inside Belanglo State Forest — bound, brutalised, and left as trophies.

The man responsible was Ivan Milat — a gun-obsessed truck driver from Sydney’s outskirts whose charm masked decades of violence. From his brutal childhood and string of early crimes, to the chilling discovery of his victims and the raid that finally brought him down, this episode dives into Australia’s most infamous serial killer — the so-called Backpacker Murderer.

We’ll trace Milat’s disturbing pattern of control, his obsession with weapons, the survivors who helped catch him, and the generational darkness that lived on through his great-nephew’s copycat killing years later.

Trigger Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of violence and sexual assault.

In this episode of You’re Killing Me, we head deep into rural Australia to uncover one of the most chilling crimes in the country’s history — the story of Katherine Knight.

Born into violence, raised in trauma, and forged in the blood and brutality of the abattoir, Katherine’s life spiraled from chaos into horror. What began as a story of abuse and survival ended in one of the most shocking murders ever committed on Australian soil — a crime so gruesome that even seasoned detectives were haunted by what they saw.

Through her upbringing, relationships, and descent into madness, this episode traces how a young girl from a broken family became Australia’s first woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

A story of control, obsession, and unimaginable violence — this is the case of Katherine Knight.

Sources used for this episode include (but are not limited to):

• ABC News (Australia) ABC

• 7NEWS — 7NEWS

• People Magazine — People.com

• news.com.au — News.com.au

• Peter Lalor — Blood Stain (Allen & Unwin)
  Google Books+

• Sandra Lee — Beyond Bad: The Life and Crimes of Katherine Knight

Welcome to You're Killing Me, your latest true crime obsession. Launching the 24th of October, 2025 AEST. We can't wait to dive into the depths of the human psyche with you.