Trigger warnings: murder, sexual violence, assault. Lynette Daley was a 31-year-old Aboriginal woman who lived in the Clarence Valley, northern NSW. She was a mother of seven and a beloved daughter who had fallen on hard times and was experiencing homelessness. In 2011, on Australia Day, two local lowlifes asked her to accompany them on a camping trip to the isolated Ten Mile Beach, north of Iluka. They kept Lynette drinking throughout the day, and at night, while Lynette was too drunk to...

As the final installment of our First Nation's themed season, we are talking about January 26th. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/murder-in-the-land-of-oz.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We are back after a (what turned into a much bigger than intended) break! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/murder-in-the-land-of-oz.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Whoops we covered another cult. Coming for ya, Jo Thornely. Chantelle McDougall, her six-year-old daughter Leela, her partner Simon Kadwill, and their housemate Tony Popic went missing in July of 2007. Simon was the leader of an internet-based doomsday cult, who believed that through death, a chosen few would ascend to a new plane of reality and usher in the new Aquarian age of existence. So you know, normal stuff.  They told friends and family they were moving to Brazil, but their was no...

Okay, yes, every show and their dog (or podcast cat) have covered this case. But we just had to jump on the bandwagon.  You may be familiar with the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard from the documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, or the hit TV show now on Hulu The Act, or just generally from having an internet connection at any point in time over the past four years. The internet is obsessed with this case, and for good reason – the horrific murder of Dee Dee Blanchard shocked the world, not because...

Fred and Rosemary West were coooooooked, mates. This episode was a request from our beloved patron Lily and let me tell ya, we don’t trust her any more! Massive listener warnings for murder, torture, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse. We could barely get through telling this story, we understand if you can’t get through listening to it. Fred and Rose West committed at least twelve murders, possibly more. The West abducted women and subjected them to hours of sexual torture before...

This episode we cover the murder of Lynette Dawson. Although officially a “disappearance”, it has long been the belief of both the police and the general public that Lyn Dawson was murdered by her husband Chris Dawson, who had been having a sexual relationship with his sixteen-year-old student for eighteen months by the time of Lyn’s “disappearance”.    The case was covered in exhaustive detail by The Teacher’s Pet podcast, presented by The Australian. The extent of Chris’ abusive...

Aunty Tanya Day was a 55 year old Yorta Yorta woman who died while in police custody after being arrested for public intoxication while on a train. Tanya was drunk and asleep on a VLine train headed to Melbourne when a ticket inspector decided she was unruly and called the police. Tanya was taken to Castlemaine Police Station, where she was left in a cell and check on for a total of less than thirty seconds in the four hours she was held there. Tanya sustained a serious head injury that...

Over three hundred Frontier Wars were fought in Australia as the Indigenous people of this land tried valiantly to resist the invasion of British Colonialists. The Bathurst War was one such war, fought by the Wiradjuri nation in what is now known as Bathurst, led by the Aboriginal resistance leader Windradyne. In the mid-1820s, the slow erosion of the Wiradjuri's sovereignty by the colonisers was rapidly increased by Sir Thomas Brisbane, who authorised a large number of land grants in the...

This episode discusses Aboriginal people who have died. In this episode, we discuss the police’s attempt to cover up the finding of John Pat’s body, the subsequent investigation, trial, and the eventual Royal Commission into John Pat’s death. EPISODE NOTES: Much to the despair of John Pat’s friends and loved ones, no really satisfying conclusion into his death was reached. And the Royal Commission didn’t really change too much, either. Aboriginal people are still imprisoned at a rate far...

This episode discusses Aboriginal people who have died. In this episode, we discuss the police’s attempt to cover up the finding of John Pat’s body, the subsequent investigation, trial, and the eventual Royal Commission into John Pat’s death. EPISODE NOTES: Much to the despair of John Pat’s friends and loved ones, no really satisfying conclusion into his death was reached. And the Royal Commission didn’t really change too much, either. Aboriginal people are still imprisoned at a rate far...

WARNING: This episode discusses Aboriginal people who have died. In 1983, a sixteen-year-old Yindjibarndi boy named John Pat died in police custody after sustaining injuries in the course of a fistfight with the police. His death was one of several Indigenous deaths in custody that caused an uproar amongst Indigenous Australia who believed, quite rightly, that the police were unfairly targeting, using excessive force, and ultimately causing the deaths of a disproportionate number of...

WARNING: This episode discusses violence against children. 12-year-old Leanne Holland went missing in September of 1991. When her horribly mutilated body was found in bushland three days later, suspicions immediately turned to one of the last people to see her alive: her older sister's boyfriend, 28-year-old Graham Stafford. While Graham denied committing the brutal crime, the evidence seemed to be overwhelming. Blood matching Leanne's rare blood type was found in his vehicle, as was a long...

Cattle stations. The vast nothingness of the Central Australian bush. The past. A potential wrong conviction. Police corruption. This case TRULY has all the trappings of an #EllenEpisode. In 1958, Thyra Bowman, Wendy Bowman, and Thomas Whelan were murdered after they stopped to camp at the deserted Sundown Station just past the South Australia-Northern Territory border. All three victims had been beaten and shot. The police were on the lookout for an American-style vehicle towing a caravan...

Between May 1980 and November 1981, the bodies of six women were found hidden in dense scrubland in south-east Melbourne. The murders mystified police – the circumstances of their disappearances were similar, but not exactly the same. Their ages were quite different. There wasn’t a strong physical resemblance. But the bodies were all found in the same fairly small geographic area. Was there one killer with no particular preference for the type of woman he killed? Or were there two or more...

A 26-year-old German tourist named Nancy Grundwalt disappeared from Scamander, Tasmania in 1993, while cycling down the Tasman Highway. No trace of her has ever been found. Two years later, a 20-year-old Italian tourist named Victoria Cafasso was violently murdered on Beaumaris Beach, only a few kilometres away from where Nancy was last seen. Her killer has also never been found. Two mysteries in two tiny towns on Tasmania’s East Coast, that almost thirty years later are no closer to being...

When the body of Scott Johnson was found at the bottom of a cliff in North Head, Sydney, with his clothes folded neatly at the top of the cliff with a pen resting on top, the police easily ruled it a suicide. That was the direction in which the evidence was pointing, and there was no need to investigate any further. Scott’s brother, Steve, could never accept that Scott would kill himself. Scott was almost finished his PhD. He had moved to Australia from America only two years prior to live...

Aussie mania swept the globe in the late 80s after a little film called Crocodile Dundee showed the world the magic of Australia’s last frontier. Audiences were charmed by the rugged bushman Mick Dundee, and laughed as the outback larrikin tried to make his way around NYC. The film was inspired by a real person, Rod Ansell, who had spent 56 days surviving alone in the Outback after his fishing boat was capsized by a crocodile. Rod never saw any money from the film, and his life eventually...

Claremont, like Snowtown, is one of those places that you only know the name of because of a heinous crime. In the mid 90s, three young women went missing after spending nights out on the town. The body of Sarah Spiers was never found, but the bodies of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon would eventually be found, discarded in the bush. The similarities between the three victims and the circumstances of their disappearances led police to believe that a serial killer was preying on young women in...

Rodney Marks was an astrophysicist who tragically died while overwintering in Antarctica in 2000. His cause of death was unknown, and his body stayed in Antarctica for five months after his death, as the below-freezing temperatures prevented his body from being flown back to be examined. When an autopsy was conducted, it was shockingly revealed that Rodney had died, not from natural causes as suspected, but from methanol poisoning. The 32-year-old was a genius scientist, working a dream job...

If you haven't watched Law & Order SVU now is your MOMENT huns. We rate the characters from a level of Olivia Benson to DUN DUN.

In this episode, we discuss the many trials and tribulations of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain, as they were accused of murdering their daughter Azaria. We go through the inquests, the trials, the evidence, the fuck-ups, the acquittal, the inquests again, that took place over the thirty plus years from when Azaria went missing to when finally, finally, a judge officially decided that yes, in fact, a dingo did take the baby. YOU GUYS. This is our last episode (of this series)! We’ve gone...

Look, folks, they can’t all be bangers. This episode we discuss the lead-up to the most famous Australian case of all time – the death of Azaria Chamberlain. You’ve heard “dingoes ate my baby” a thousand times in pop culture, and today we discuss what actually happened the day that dingoes did indeed take Lindy Chamberlain’s baby, as well as a bit of a discussion about the cultural impact that this case has had. Next week we’ll dive into the inquests and trials that began in the 80s and...

Phuongsri Kroksamrang and Somjai Insamnan were sex workers who were murdered by teenagers Phu Ngoc Tring and Ben McLean in March of 2004. They were bound, strangled, and tossed in the river by the boys, who hoped that crocodiles would get rid of the victim’s remains. Their bodies resurfaced, however, and Trinh and McLean were arrested for the murders. The boys wove a fantastical tall tale to explain the crime, involving the Hell’s Angels, drug deals, police informants, and a completely...