True Crime Conversations
Episodes
The Many Faces of Samantha Azzopardi: The Con Artist Who Just Won't Stop
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's October 2013, and two police officers in Dublin spot a distressed young girl outside the General Post Office. She’s crying and unable to speak,...
Judy Malinowski Testified At Her Own Murder Trial
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At around 5pm on a hot August afternoon in 2015, a 911 call comes in about a fire at a service station in Columbus, Ohio. A man has poured two jerry c...
Has The Long Island Serial Killer Finally Been Caught?
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the early hours of May 1, 2010, Shannan Gilbert called 911 from a Long Island house after working as an escort with a client she met on Craigslist....
The Melbourne Mother Executed By Mistake
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On an ordinary Melbourne afternoon in 1997, suburban mum of three Jane Thurgood-Dove pulled into her driveway with her kids in the back seat. As Jane ...
A Babysitter’s Deadly Obsession With The Girl Across The Road
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Rachel Barber failed to return home from dance practice one evening in 1999, her family reported her missing and launched a desperate search. The...
Cold Cases & Serial Killers: Inside The World Of A Famous Homicide Prosecutor
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From solving cold-cases to putting multiple serial-killers behind bars, Matt Murphy is one of America’s top homicide prosecutors. Many of his cases ...
The Murder That Broke A Detective
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From domestic violence to murder, sexual assaults, and abuse against children, former Australian detective, Luke Taylor, has sadly seen it all. But af...
Inside The Mind Of A Sexual Predator
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brent is a former police officer who has done extensive work investigating sex crimes, which led him to become one of Australia’s top experts on the...
A Cop Cover-Up Or A Killer Girlfriend: Is Karen Read Being Framed?
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since the mysterious death of Boston Policeman John O’Keefe, during a snowy night in 2022, the small town where he died has been divided. There...
The Australian Filmmakers Determined To Solve America’s Burger Chef Murders
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The bodies of Danny, Jayne, Mark and Ruth were found two days after their final shift at Burger Chef in late 1978, 20 miles away in a rural field. T...
The Mother And Daughter Murder Australia Forgot
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1984, Margaret Tapp and her nine-year-old daughter Seana were found dead in their beds, still in their nightgowns. The killer surely strangled Marg...
Three Months After Her Wedding, Anthea Bradshaw Was Murdered
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1994, the body of 26-year-old Anthea Bradshaw was found on the floor of the apartment her husband Jeff Hall was living in just three months after t...
The Real Story Behind The Attempted Assassination Of Donald Trump
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Crooks managed to send eight bullets flying in 26 seconds, before he was shot dead by secret service agents. He missed his target Donald Trump,...
Inside The Deadliest Police Shooting In Queensland History
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On December 12, 2022, Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold were killed in the line of duty. A neighbour, Alan Dare, also died that day. As did ...
An Affair, A Murder And A Cover-Up: Inside The Missing Campers Trial
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Wonnangatta Valley is the perfect place for anyone hiding a secret, or anyone who doesn’t want to be found. The perfect place to have an affair...
Sarah Everard And The Policeman She Should Have Been Able To Trust
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2021, Sarah Everard’s body was found in a stream in Kent, wrapped in a bag. The 33-year-old had been raped and murdered after being abducte...
How The Amish Wife’s Husband Got Away With Murder
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Ida Stutzman perished in a barn fire on a warm summer night in 1977, her husband Eli’s side of the story didn’t add up from the start. But th...
Hedley Thomas Is Searching For Bronwyn
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The disappearance of Bronwyn Winfield was barely covered by the media in 1993. It took 11 days for her husband Jon Winfield to report her as missing...
How The Parents Of A School Shooter Ended Up Behind Bars
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What a 15-year-old student unleashed on Oxford High School in 2021, didn’t just land himself in prison, he took his mother and father down with him....
Eurydice Dixon Was Just Walking Home
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been six years today since the rape and murder of 22-year-old comedian Eurydice Dixon as she was walking home in Melbourne. Six years since her...
The Unravelling Of Jennifer Pan’s Double Life
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As police arrive at an ordinary suburban home to find a mother dead, a father seriously injured, three people on the run and a terrified Jennifer Pan,...
There Were 105 Bruises On Her Body
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Kirra-Lea McLoughlin died on a property near Gympie, Queensland, law enforcement and medical examiners were baffled. Kirra’s former partner wou...
Jennifer & Jack Edwards Had Just Come Home From School
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On July 5th, 2018 Jennifer and Jack Edwards were murdered in their home on Hull Street in the Sydney suburb of West Pennant Hills. Their mother Olga...
Tara Did Everything 'Right'
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tara Costigan was murdered in 2015, one day after taking out a DVO on her ex-partner Marcus Rappel. The day he laid a finger on her was the day he mur...
Luke Just Wanted A Few Extra Minutes With His Dad
08 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, 11-year-old Luke Batty was murdered by his father at Tyabb cricket ground on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. The following year a corone...
The Woman Counting Australia’s Murdered Women
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This month, we’re doing things differently. Over the next few weeks well be revisiting stories from our archives to highlight crimes involving male ...
The News Snowtown Victims Families Have Been Dreading
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1999, two detectives followed a trail of suspicious missing persons cases to an old, red-brick bank in Snowtown, South Australia. As they hea...
A Triple Murder And A Broken System
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In May 2016, police arrived at a farmhouse in Hillier, north of Adelaide. The scene that awaited them was horrifying beyond words. Stephen Graham Pe...
According To A Criminologist, Keli Lane Shouldn’t Be In Prison.
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On September 12, 1996, Keli Lane gave birth to a baby girl at Auburn Hospital in western Sydney. Two days later that baby seemingly disappeared. Aft...
Dorothea Puente: The Serial Killer Granny
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
To the outside world, Dorothea Puente presented herself as a kind grandmotherly figure who cared for the disabled and vulnerable residents of her boar...
Secrets On Death Row: America’s ‘Killer Clown’
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
John Wayne Gacy is one of the worst serial killers in American history, murdering at least 33 teenage boys and men in the late 1970s. He was executed ...
Inside The Rise & Fall Of Ruby Franke
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ruby Franke and her husband Kevin started posting their family online in 2015 under the pseudonym 8 Passengers. Things like birthday parties, grocery ...
How A Perth Girl Ended Up In A Thai Prison
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Holly Deane-Johns grew up in a wealthy area of Perth. When her family’s real estate business went bust, her mother started a successful escort agenc...
Scotland’s ‘Lynette Dawson’ Case
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In April, 1998, Arlene Fraser disappeared from her home in Elgin, north-east Scotland. On a seemingly normal Tuesday morning, the 33-year-old waved he...
‘Sit Down & Shut Up. The Man In The Coffin Has Something To Say’
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Bill Edgar is the world's only Coffin Confessor. He attends people’s funerals, sits quietly amongst the mourners, and then at a time pre-determined ...
How Australia’s ‘Bug Whisperer’ Solves Crimes
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Insects never lie. And in Paola Magni’s job, she's the person who helps translate what these tiny little witnesses have to say to give justice to vi...
Escaping One Of Australia's Most Secretive Cults
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Laura McConnell grew up in a fundamentalist sect with no name. Along with no official title, the group also claims to have no registration around the ...
Meet The Man Who Does 200 Autopsies A Year
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Johan Duflou has seen a lot of dead bodies. In his four decades as a forensic pathologist, he estimates he’s done about 200 autopsies a year. Some...
Come With Us Behind The Scenes Of Crime...
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mamamia’s True Crime Conversations is back for 2024, exploring the world’s most notorious crimes, by speaking to the people who know the most abou...
With Her Abuser Behind Bars, Dassi Erlich Is Ready To Talk.
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2023, Malka Leifer was sentenced to 15 years in prison for 18 counts of sexual abuse against Dassi Erlich and her little sister. Leifer was the sis...
The Complicated Crimes Of Gypsy Rose Blanchard
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2016, Gypsy Rose Blanchard pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She admitted to planning and orchestratin...
Inside The Life Of An Australian Prison Guard
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Stevie Munro is a Senior Correctional Officer with Moree Court Escort services, in charge of things like processing offenders who’ve just been arres...
Mamamia Investigates The Disappearance Of Peng Shuai: But Will She Ever Be Free?
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. In the lead-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics, the world b...
Mamamia Investigates The Disappearance Of Peng Shuai: Proof Of Life
07 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. For three long weeks in November 2021, the tennis communit...
Mamamia Investigates The Disappearance Of Peng Shuai: The Tennis Star Who Vanished
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. It was after 10 pm, on November 2nd, 2021 when 35-year-old...
Mamamia Investigates Belle Gibson: Reckoning & Reinvention
31 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. Belle Gibson spent years lying about her health. From thos...
Mamamia Investigates Belle Gibson: The Email No One Wanted To Believe
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. Belle Gibson was travelling to Queensland for a funeral wh...
Mamamia Investigates Belle Gibson: From Teen Mum To Internet Infamy
24 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. Belle Gibson spent years lying about her health. From th...
The Adelaide Schoolgirl Taken From Her Bed
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On a summer evening in January 1983, 10-year-old Louise Bell went missing from her bedroom in Adelaide's Hackham West. It was a case that horrified ...
The Murdaugh Murders
13 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Murdaughs were one of South Carolina's most prominent legal families for nearly a century. They were so influential in the area, that locals nickn...
Inside The Mind Of The Hoddle Street Killer
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On a Sunday night in August 1987, 18-year-old Julian Knight unleashed terror on the streets of Melbourne. It was just after 9:30pm when the recently...
The Baby In The Mailbag
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1965 a horrific discovery was made at a Darwin post office. A package carrying the remains of a newborn baby boy had been sent there from the...
Shanelle Dawson: Coming To Terms With The Teacher's Pet
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The murder of Lynette Dawson was a crime that unravelled in real-time via a podcast called The Teacher’s Pet in 2018. It was a groundbreaking invest...
The Forgotten Victims Of Malcolm Naden
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Malcolm Naden was once Australia's most wanted man. The prime suspect for the murder of his neighbour, as well as in the disappearance and suspected...
The Most Famous Poisoning Murder You’ve Never Heard Of
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On New Year’s Eve, 1927, Ethel Griggs and her baby daughter Alwyn returned home to Victoria after six months away in Tasmania. After eating supper...
Inside Australia's Most Infamous Prison
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For more than a century, Australia's infamous Pentridge Prison was an ominous presence just 30 minutes away from Melbourne’s CBD. A place of murder ...
Six Deaths. One Uncomfortable Truth.
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last two years, Indigenous Affairs Reporter Douglas Smith and his team have been looking into the deaths of six Indigenous women, from three ...
Hunting The Kimberley Killer
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In June 1987, Australia's top end lost it's innocence. The murders of five tourists across the Northern Territory and Western Australia marred the rep...
From Journalist To Witness: Inside The Teacher's Pet Podcast
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, Hedley Thomas’ podcast The Teacher's Pet captivated millions of listeners around the world as he unravelled the disappearance of Lynette Si...
The Wrongful Conviction of Evaristo Salas
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Evaristo Salas Junior was just 16 when he was sent to an adult men’s prison convicted of the murder of Jose Arreola in 1995. But in the nearly thr...
The Disappearance Of Rhianna Barreau
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1992, 12-year-old Rhianna Barreau disappeared. On the day she went missing it was school holidays, and Rhianna had spent the morning wand...
Australia’s Biggest Terror Campaign You’ve Never Heard About
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In September 1988 a campaign of terror was unleashed upon Perth’s Chinese community through a series of targeted firebombings that decimated a numbe...
Australia's Dark History Of Forced Adoptions
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For nearly half a century, Australia was engaged in a shameful and shocking practice that would tear babies from the arms of their mothers, sometimes ...
The Murder Squad
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Australia in the 1920s a 'murder wave' gripped the country, as the desperation of The Great Depression rippled through society. Cases like The Huma...
Inside The Trial Of Lucy Letby
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, 33-year-old nurse Lucy Letby was found guilty of murdering seven newborns, and attempting to kill six others who were under her care in 201...
Karen Bell Escaped Her Husband, But She Couldn’t Save Her Children
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Bell met Gary Poxon in 1993. She was 17, he was 29. By 2008, the pair were living in an isolated farmhouse in Pericoe with their three childre...
‘Look What You Made Me Do’: The Murder Of Mimi Acar
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What little kid doesn’t want their Dad to take them to the shop and get them a kinder surprise? That’s what Ramazan Acar told his ex partner Rache...
Murder On The West Gate Bridge: The Story Of Darcey Freeman
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2009, Darcey Freeman’s father, Arthur Freeman, was driving her to her first day of school when he acted out of revenge. He threw his four...
Fathers Who Kill: The Revenge Murder Of Kelly East
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You can listen to our first-hand interview with Michelle Steck here. In 1993, Michelle Steck lost her daughter Kelly at the hands of her former partne...
The Cold Case Still Haunting Australia’s Cape York
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Bevin and Brad Simmons went missing off the coast of the Cape York Peninsula in 2003, a massive air, land and sea search was launched to find the...
The McCulkin Murders
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The notorious Whisky Au Go Go nightclub fire in Brisbane in 1973 left behind questions that remain unanswered to this day. Who was really behind it, w...
Murders In The Nightclub: Inside Queensland's Worst Firebombing Incident
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Whisky Au Go Go Fire is just as much a mystery today as it was in the hours after the tragedy that took the lives of 15 people in Fortitude Valley...
The Prison Guard Who Fell In Love With An Inmate
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1992, career criminal Peter Gibb met prison guard Heather Parker while serving a 12-year sentence at the Melbourne Remand Centre. Heather claimed s...
Surviving The Butcher Of Bega
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You can listen to our interview with a second victim or Dr Reeves here. In the later months of 1995, 28-year-old Jayne Mansfield found herself in need...
The Butcher Of Bega
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to our interview with a survivor of the Butcher Of Bega here. In 2011 gynaecologist Graeme Stephen Reeves was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison ...
Abuse, Fraud & Control: Unravelling Hillsong
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Pentecostalism has been practised in Australia since the 1920s. But it wasn’t until husband and wife team Brian and Bobby Houston launched Hillsong ...
Where Does Kathleen Folbigg Go From Here?
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this week, in an historic decision, the NSW attorney general made the extraordinary announcement that Kathleen Folbigg had been granted a pard...
After 20 Years In Prison, Kathleen Folbigg Has Been Pardoned
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After 20 years behind bars, Kathleen Folbigg has been pardoned, and released from prison. A landmark inquiry saw NSW’s top prosecutor accept there w...
The Disappearance Of Gordana Kotevski
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In November, 1994, 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski was abducted while walking home from a local shopping centre in the Newcastle suburb of Charlestown. G...
Australia’s Most Wanted Father & Son
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to part two of this conversation with Nino, here. In the mid 90s, the Stoccos seemed like any other Aussie family. A mum and dad, Connie and ...
The Wrongful Conviction That Divided New Zealand
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The murders of Harvey and Jeannette Crewe in June 1970 were labelled the death of innocence in New Zealand, and would go on to become one of the count...
‘I Was Stalked For 3 Years’: Nicole Madigan’s Story
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The phenomenon of stalking is as prolific as it is insidious. The breadth of quiet suffering perpetrators calculate and inflict on their subjects ofte...
The Black Widow Of Adelaide
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Michelle Burgess is one of Australia’s most infamous ‘black widows’ - a term given to female psychopaths who either kill or organise other men t...
The Clifftop Murder Of Janet Fisicaro
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2010, 52-year-old Des Campbell was found guilty of murdering his wife Janet Fisicaro. The pair had only been married six months when they embarked ...
Life In Prison With No Parole: The Man Who Killed Karen Chetcuti
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2016, 49-year-old Karen Chetcuti was viscously attacked on her property in Whorouly, a rural town in north-eastern Victoria. What happened ...
The Frankston Murders: Why A Serial Killer Could Walk Free
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1990s, 21-year-old Paul Denyer terrorised the Victorian suburb of Frankston. He preyed on the local women; stalking, abducting and eventu...
The South Australian Woman Who Turned To Stone
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1951, the discovery of a petrified female body in the raging floodwaters of the Murray River triggered an investigation that spanned multiple Austr...
The Moment That Could’ve Saved Gabby Petito
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In August 2021, Gabby Petito went missing while on holiday with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. The pair were six weeks into a four month trip acro...
Fake Identities, Kidnapping & Murder: Uncovering The True Identity Of Sharon Marshall
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In April 1990, a 21-year-old woman was found dead on the side of a highway in Oklahoma City. The investigation into her death, which initially s...
The Secret History Of Catholic Orphanages
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, impoverished populations within urban areas were struggling to keep up with the rising number of abandoned chi...
The Cruise Ship Death Of Dianne Brimble
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the 23rd of September 2002, Dianne Brimble stepped aboard what should have been a ten-day cruise through New Caledonia and Vanuatu with her family....
The ‘Child Bride’ Who Brought Down Australia’s Biggest Doomsday Cult
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
William Kamm is the self-proclaimed Messiah behind Australia’s biggest doomsday cult. After the inception of The Order of St Charbel ...
A Deal With The Devil To Find Matthew Leveson
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In September 2007, after a night out on Sydney’s iconic Oxford Street, 20-year-old Matthew Leveson went missing. Although police investiga...
Meet The Woman Who Caught The Mornington Monster
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s episode is about one of Victoria’s most disturbing cases of familicide. The death of Anna Kemp & her daughter Gracie at the ha...
Inside The Mind Of Australia’s Most Perverted Killer
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1969 Derek Percy was arrested for the brutal killing of 12 year old Yvonne Tuohy. While he was held responsible for that crime, a string of unsol...
Re-Opening The Closed Case Of Sandrine Jourdan
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sandrine Jourdan vanished from a Queensland property in July 2012. A coroner would eventually rule her death a probable suicide. But her body has neve...
We’ve Got Some News
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our host Gemma Bath is taking a short break, while she's on maternity leave a familiar voice will be stepping in to keep the mic warm...Become a Mamam...
Daniella Was 15 When She Escaped A Cult
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Daniella Mestyanek Young was born into the Children Of God religious cult. Her childhood was lived out behind the tall gates of a commune in Brazil, w...
Gary Jubelin’s Life As A Homicide Detective
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After 34 years in the police and 25 years in homicide, it was former Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin’s job to catch killers. He worked on some of t...
Crime Through The Eyes Of A Psychic Detective
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Debbie Malone is used to sceptics. She’s been brushed aside, turned away, and sworn at by people who say she’s a liar. That she’s making things ...