You're Killing Me

The Miracle Survival of Alison Botha: A True Crime Story of Unbelievable Resilience

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault, extreme violence, and near-fatal injuries. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

On December 18, 1994, 27-year-old Alison Botha was abducted from outside her Port Elizabeth, South Africa apartment by two men who would subject her to one of the most brutal attacks in South African history. What happened next defies medical explanation and stands as one of the most remarkable survival stories ever documented.

The Attack:Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger, known as the "Noordhoek Ripper Rapists," sexually assaulted Alison before attempting to murder her in the most horrific way imaginable. They slashed her throat 16 times—nearly decapitating her—and stabbed her abdomen more than 30 times, causing her intestines to spill from her body. They left her for dead in an isolated area near Summer Strand.

The Impossible Survival:Despite catastrophic injuries that should have killed her within minutes, Alison refused to die. With her throat slashed and her intestines exposed, she:

• Wrote her attackers' names in the sand as evidence
• Crawled toward the road while holding her organs inside her body
• Stood and walked when crawling became too slow—even as her head flopped backward and her vision went black
• Laid across the middle of the road to ensure passing cars would see her
• Survived 90 minutes from attack to rescue

Veterinary student Tiaan Eilerd stopped to help, potentially saving her life by tucking her exposed thyroid back into her throat. After 3.5 hours of emergency surgery, doctors said they'd never seen anyone survive injuries this severe.

The Aftermath:This episode covers:✓ The full timeline of the attack and rescue✓ Details of the trial and life sentences for Frans du Toit and Theuns Kruger✓ Alison's remarkable recovery and journey as a motivational speaker✓ Her marriage to Tienie Botha and the birth of her two sons—despite doctors saying pregnancy was impossible✓ The controversial 2023 parole release of her attackers (without notifying Alison)✓ Her 2024 brain aneurysm and ongoing medical needs✓ The February 2025 parole cancellation following public outcry✓ How you can support Alison's recovery through the Back-a-Buddy fundraiser

Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault, graphic violence, near-decapitation, disembowelment, medical trauma

Resources:

• RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
• Alison's Fundraiser: backabuddy.co.za/campaign/help-alison-botha-in-her-time-of-need

Sources:

• "I Have Life: Alison's Journey" by Marianne Thamm
• Court documents and trial transcripts
• Medical reports and expert testimony
• Documentary: "Alison" (2016)

Join us on "You're Killing Me" as we explore one of the most incredible survival stories in true crime history. This is Alison Botha's story—and it will leave you speechless.

Support Alison here: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/help-alison-botha-in-her-time-of-need~2

#TrueCrime #SurvivalStory #AlisonBotha #SouthAfrica #TrueCrimePodcast #YoureKillingMe #PortElizabeth #MiracleStory #Survivor #TrueCrimeCommunity

The Murder of Shad Thyrion | Taylor Schabusiness Case | Green Bay Dismemberment | You're Killing Me Podcast

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:

At 3:23 AM on February 23rd, 2022, a mother in Green Bay, Wisconsin made a discovery that would horrify even the most seasoned homicide investigators. When Tara Thyrion went to check on her 24-year-old son Shad in the basement of their home, she found a bucket covered with a beach towel. What was inside would change her life forever.

This is the complete breakdown of the Shad Thyrion murder case—a crime that unfolded over 24 hours in a place that should have been safe.

WHAT WE COVER:

• The timeline: February 21-23, 2022—from a normal night to an unthinkable crime scene
• Who Shad Thyrion was: A 24-year-old Green Bay resident, a son who was exactly where he was supposed to be
• Taylor Schabusiness: The woman Shad knew from school, her troubled background, and her disturbing obsession with Jeffrey Dahmer
• The basement: What happened during those 24 hours, based on police interrogation and confession transcripts
• The discovery: How police followed bloody footprints through the snow and the horrific evidence they found
• The dismemberment: Medical examiner findings and the extent of post-mortem mutilation
• The trial: Courtroom violence, psychiatric evaluations, and a verdict delivered to a defendant who smirked
• The aftermath: Prison attacks, continued violence, and a life sentence that doesn't stop the pattern

CONTENT WARNING:This episode contains detailed discussion of murder, strangulation, dismemberment, sexual assault, necrophilia, drug use, and extreme violence. It also discusses mental health issues and incarceration. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

WHY THIS CASE MATTERS:

This isn't an unsolved mystery. There are no unanswered questions about who did this or why. What makes this case significant is what it reveals about sustained violence, the failure of supervision systems, and the people left to carry the aftermath.

Shad Thyrion was not a statistic. He was a son who spent time in a basement that was supposed to be his safe space. His mother went looking for him and found certainty in its most brutal form.

We tell this story with respect for Shad's life and honesty about the crime that ended it.

EPISODE DETAILS:🎙️ Hosted by Shawnee & Joel Harris📅 Original Crime Date: February 23, 2022⚖️ Verdict: July 26, 2023 - Guilty, Life Without Parole📍 Location: Green Bay, Wisconsin

FOLLOW YOU'RE KILLING ME:New episodes weekly covering cases that deserve deeper analysis—from investigation to verdict and beyond.

Subscribe, rate, and review to help others find responsible true crime coverage.

🔗 Instagram: @yourekillingmepod🔗 TikTok: @yourekillingmepod🔗 Website: [website URL]

SOURCES:This episode is based on court documents, police reports, autopsy findings, trial testimony, news coverage from local Green Bay media, and official case records.

Taylor Schabusiness, Shad Thyrion, Green Bay murder, Wisconsin true crime, dismemberment case, 2022 murder, Jeffrey Dahmer obsession, true crime podcast, You're Killing Me podcast, criminal psychology, violent crime, courtroom attacks, life without parole

🎄 He sees you when you’re sleeping.

But Santa was never the only one watching.

Long before Christmas became soft and sparkly, winter was brutal — and obedience was enforced with fear.

In this special Christmas episode of You’re Killing Me, Shawnee dives into the dark, blood-soaked origins of Krampus — the horned enforcer who followed Saint Nicholas, dragging bad children away in sacks, beating them with birch rods, and reminding entire villages what happened when rules were broken.

We trace Krampus from ancient pagan winter gods and the goddess Perchta, through the Church’s weaponisation of fear, to modern-day Krampusnacht — where masked figures still roam Alpine streets, chains rattling, bells screaming, leaving bruises, broken bones, and silence behind.

This isn’t a festive fairy tale.

It’s a story about punishment, control, conditional love — and why some monsters survive because we keep giving them a body.

Listener discretion advised.

Brisbane, 2014. A young couple move into a Teneriffe apartment for what’s meant to be a fresh start: new city, new lease, same old money problems. Three weeks later, one of them is dead and the other is about to become a headline.

In this episode we meet 27-year-old Indonesian woman Mayang Prasetyo and her husband, chef Marcus Volke. We follow them through Melbourne’s adult industry, a quick marriage in Denmark, years of drifting between Europe and Asia, and finally into a riverside unit where migration stress, sex work stigma and domestic tension quietly build.

This episode focuses on who they were before the crime — Mayang as a daughter and breadwinner, Marcus as a drifting chef and sex worker — and the hidden dynamics of domestic violence in LGBTI relationships. We end the story on the night neighbours hear a violent argument and a woman’s screams… and then silence.

Content note: Domestic and family violence, transphobia, sex work stigma, dismemberment and suicide.

For support on domestic violence, we have listed some helpful links below:

https://www.dvconnect.org/

https://fullstop.org.au/

https://www.vic.gov.au/family-violence-statewide-support-services?

https://whiteribbon.org.au/helplines/?

In 1822, eight convicts escaped from Sarah Island — the most brutal prison in Van Diemen’s Land. Only one came back alive.
His name was Alexander Pearce… and he’d eaten the rest.

In this episode, Shawnee dives deep into one of Australia’s most disturbing true stories — the brutal escapes, the descent into madness, and the hunger that turned a man into a legend.
From starvation in the Tasmanian wilderness to murder, confession, and execution — this is the true story of the Cannibal Convict.

Dark, atmospheric, and laced with understated humour — this is survival stripped bare.

Eight bodies. Six plastic barrels. One abandoned bank vault in the middle of nowhere.

By the end of the 1990s, John Bunting’s murderous “cleansing” campaign had escalated beyond backyard interrogations into full-scale slaughter — and Snowtown became the silent storage facility for the group’s dead.

In Part Two of this two-hour deep dive, we follow the Snowtown killers as their crimes spiral out of control:

the betrayal of close associates, the murders of family members, the filling of the barrels, the final victim lured to his death — and the moment the smell finally leads police to the bank vault that would shock Australia.

This episode traces:

• The late-stage murders from 1997–1999

• The group’s move to Snowtown and use of the abandoned bank

• The final victims — including family betrayals

• The police discovery inside the vault

• The longest murder trial in South Australian history

• The devastating impact on a town forever tied to the killings

Twelve victims.

Four men.

And a country town that became synonymous with horror through no fault of its own.

Listener discretion advised.

🎧 This is Part Two of a two-part series.

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.