On this week’s episode, our guest is a young woman who has been through hell and back and is finally ready to tell her harrowing story. On April 11, 2017, the world was introduced to 22-year-old Cassie Sainsbury, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed young lady from Adelaide in South Australia. Cassie was a personal trainer, she was engaged to marry a man named Scott Broadbridge and she had a close, loving family. But Cassie’s face was splashed all over the news for a sinister reason. She’d just been...

On Easter 2015, in Leeton, NSW, around five hours from Sydney, a chill hung in the air of the usually bustling country town. Leeton was a quiet, unassuming place. Nothing bad ever seemed to happen there. People kept their doors unlocked and every one know each other at the local grocery store. The worst crime would be a scuffle outside of the pub on Friday night. But five years ago, evil came to Leeton.  On Easter Sunday, 2015, 26-year-old schoolteacher Stephanie Scott said goodbye to her...

Melbourne woman Lily Parmenter was only 19 when her mum Kathleen O’Shea – known to her family and friends as Katie - disappeared from the Queensland town of Atherton in December 2005. Katie was a quirky, happy and beloved single mum of five from Melbourne. On December 17, Katie and her 11-year-old daughter Brigid O’Shea flew to Cairns to visit her son, Alan and his partner Bryer. Alan and Bryer lived two hours from Cairns in the town of Ravenshoe, and they were expecting their first child....

When you think of Luna Park you probably think of fun, rides and fairy floss. But on the 9th of June 1979, as many Sydney-siders and tourists flocked to the amusement park - they had no idea some of them would be leaving without their lives. Because in 1979, Sydney’s Ghost train ride caught on fire and it killed six children and one adult. On this episode of Investigates Stephen sits down with journalist John Burfitt to find out how the fire really started… If you or someone you know needs...

Why do some people see ghosts? And are they actually real? Most of us love a good ghost story. Popular culture is rife with spooky tales of apparitions, poltergeists and unexplained noises in the night. While some ghosts are said to be benign, others can be malicious or even downright evil – if you believe that kind of stuff. And there are plenty who do. Today, we’re talking to Karina Machado, host of the Ghost Files podcast and author of the books Spirit Sisters and Love Never Dies. On...

In the tiny mid-north coastal town of Kendall, in NSW, Australia, a little boy in a Spiderman suit was running around his grandmother’s backyard on Benaroon Drive His name, of course, was William Tyrrell. It was September 12, 2014 – and at around 10.30am – three-year-old William was playing hide-and-seek with his older sister. William was a cheeky, playful little boy and one of his favourite games was pretending to be a tiger. As his mum and grandma went inside for a cup of tea, William...

In a world where we are deeply fascinated with true crime, digging into the lives of perpetrators and victims and vicariously living through these horrific stories, there’s a side to it we always tend to forget. And that is the police officers who see it all – these heroes are in the thick of every terrible, haunting case – from homicides, 10-car pile-ups to terrorist attacks. But the emotional toll it can take on our cops is very, very rarely spoken about. Police officers are regarded...

In December 1932, as the Depression tightened its grip, the body of a woman was found in Queens Park, Sydney. It was a popular park. There were houses in plain view. Yet this woman had been violently murdered without anyone noticing. Other equally brutal and shocking murders of women in public places were to follow. Australia's first serial killer was at large. Author Tanya Bretherton joins April to discuss this case. You can find Tanya's book The Killing Streets at any good bookstore...

If you harbour a borderline morbid fascination with cults, you’re certainly not alone. Countless movies, novels, plays, podcasts and articles explore the psychology behind why people join cults, and why people start them. One of Australia’s most infamous cults was simply known as The Family. The Family was headed by a Victorian woman named Anne Hamilton Byrne, who at her height through the 1960s until the late 1980s, ran the sadistic apocalyptic sect with hundreds of members. Anne was as...

From a shy, intelligent Sydney boy to the charismatic INXS frontman. How did Michael Hutchence become a superstar with one of the biggest bands in the world?   And how did it all go so terribly wrong? Today, we’re talking about the life and death of Michael Hutchence.   The middle son of Kel and Patricia, the older brother of Rhett, the younger brother of Tina, the father of Tiger Lily and one of the biggest rock stars the world has ever seen.   At the peak of his fame with Australian band...

Today we're diving into an extraordinary missing person's case. A case that has baffled authorities and family members for close to 23 years. In 1997, 51-year-old mother-of-two Marion Barter set off to the UK for a year-long holiday from her home on the Gold Coast. After a few postcards and calls home to her daughter Sally, Marion was never seen or heard from again. Marion was a dedicated teacher and a loving mum - she had so much to live for. So why did Marion never return? Did she start...

Love real life ghost stories? Why not check out the new season of The Ghost Files...Subscribe here: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-ghost-files/id1470196623 For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

Boxing Day 2004.  It’s a day that many Australians remember, not because of how bloated they were feeling or who Australia played in the Boxing Day cricket test at the MCG - but because of the Boxing Day tsunami that struck 14 countries and killed more than 230,000 people. So what happened when the wave hit? What was the aftermath like? And how did it change the way Australians viewed the world?  15 years on, the Indian Ocean Tsunami as it is now known, is still one of the deadliest...

On December 1, 1948, a man’s body was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide.He was clean shaven and wearing a suit and tie. But nobody knew who he was or how he died. He had no belongings or identification and the tags of his clothes had been removed. 70 years later, the case of the Somerton Man, as he went on to be known, remains unsolved. But a recent break through in the case may bring us one step closer to identifying the mystery man.      Professor Derek Abott from the University of...

Just a warning, this episode details the death of a young man for which nobody has ever been convicted.  Matthew Leveson was 20 years old when he was last seen. He was leaving a nightclub in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, and 10 years later, his body was discovered in the Royal National Park, a few hours south of Sydney. So what happened? Who killed him? And why has nobody ever been convicted? Matt’s parents Mark and Faye spent years advocating for Matt’s death and searching for him. Today on...

Just a warning, this episode details the death of a young man for which nobody has ever been convicted.  Matthew Leveson was 20 years old when he was last seen. He was leaving a nightclub in Sydney’s Darlinghurst, and 10 years later, his body was discovered in the Royal National Park, a few hours south of Sydney. So what happened? Who killed him? And why has nobody ever been convicted? Matt’s parents Mark and Faye spent years advocating for Matt’s death and searching for him. Today on...

When Nancy Beaumont let her three young children catch a bus to the beach early one Australia Day, she had no idea she would never see them again.  Adelaide in 1966, it was a more innocent time, where kids played in the streets until the sun went down. Where parents trusted the kindness of strangers. When it was perfectly acceptable to let your children come and go as they please… But after Australia Day that year, all that changed. Because 53 years ago, Jane, Arna and Grant Beaumont went...

Today we explore what is considered Australia’s largest UFO sighting.   It was 10.20am on April 6 in 1966 and just a regular day for students and teachers from Westall High School in Victoria. 12-year-old Joy Clarke was in Science Class and waiting for the bell to ring, when a student burst into the classroom, urging everyone to come outside.   The reason? Flying objects in the sky. At first, no one believed the school girl but as Joy rushed down to the oval with her classmates, well, she saw...

It was November, 1982.   And 20-year-old Tony Jones was about to head off on the adventure of a lifetime.   The Perth born bloke was about to backpack across the outback of North Queensland.He’d trek from Brisbane to Townsville, out to Mount Isa, where he’d planned on meeting his brother.   But Tony Jones never made it. As his brother Mark tells us in this episode, he’s never been seen since. So how does a person just vanish into thin air? On this episode of Investigates April Glover speaks...

There’s a house that sits on the outskirts of a small town called Junee in the Riverina area of New South Wales. Some might call it a mansion. Others would say it’s a manor house. But to most people, it’s simply known as Monte Cristo, the most haunted house in Australia. When Reg and Olive Ryan bought the property off the original owners - the Crawley family in 1963 - they had no idea that they’d be changing the course of their lives forever. Originally, they’d intended to restore the...

Launching on the 31st of October....subscribe now. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

In the final episode of the podcast, we take a look at the evidence against each suspect in the Penny Hill murder case. Joining us is Sunday Night reporter Alex Cullen, who has covered the story for Channel Seven program. And we reveal the new development in this case which could finally lead to a conviction. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy

In this episode, we speak exclusively to Penny Hill’s boyfriend, Shane Williams, a person of interest in her murder. Shane was one of the last people to speak with the nanny before she was brutally bashed and left for dead. Shane makes a startling revelation about the case. What could it mean? We also speak with the coroner who presided over the first inquest into Penny’s death and we reveal a shocking new twist in the cold case.

What secrets lay in a compartment box found under the bed where Penny Hill had slept? In this episode, we reveal it was the contents of this box which led to a second inquest into Penny's murder. And why had Barbara Baigent, wife of former rock drummer Col Baigent, taken against Penny? Music credit: Poison Ivy by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs; Written by Leiber - Stoller; Label: Linda Lee