This month, we’re doing things differently. Over the next few weeks well be revisiting stories from our archives to highlight crimes involving male violence against women in Australia because right now the rate at which we are losing women is alarming and terrifying.  But first, we wanted to talk to someone who lives and breathes violence against women every single day.  Sherele Moody is a journalist and the founder of The Red Heart Campaign and the Australian Femicide Watch. She has...

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 head inside, they head straight for the bank’s vault where they find six large plastic barrels containing human remains. They also find handcuffs, knives, a saw, boxes of disposable gloves and bottles of hydrochloric acid.  They’d come to realise they'd found the dumping grounds of Australia’s worst serial killings, crimes that would see four men...

In May 2016, police arrived at a farmhouse in Hillier, north of Adelaide. The scene that awaited them was horrifying beyond words.  Stephen Graham Peet had just murdered three people. The bodies of his girlfriend, Adeline Yvette Rigney-Wilson, and her two young children were inside.  But as his crimes unravelled in court, something became clear. Those two little kids shouldn’t have died. Their deaths, at least, were preventable. It was a series of failures from government agencies designed...

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.  After years of investigation, Keli was convicted of her daughter's murder in 2010 and sentenced to 18 years behind bars. But did they get it wrong? Keli Lane’s story has been compared to the wrongful conviction of Lindy Chamberlain. It’s been pulled apart and analysed for years.   So is she a baby killer? Or is she a woman, misunderstood. THE...

To the outside world, Dorothea Puente presented herself as a kind grandmotherly figure who cared for the disabled and vulnerable residents of her boarding house in downtown Sacramento. But behind closed doors, nothing was as it seemed… Not only was she stealing the money of her tenant, but she was also a serial killer. Allegedly murdering up to nine people. In today's episode, we explore the crimes of the ‘Death House landlady’ who even after she was convicted managed to win over people...

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 by lethal injection in 1994, but many are confident he killed even more victims than the ones he admitted to, and took plenty more secrets to the grave. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise app? Click here to start a seven-day free trial of MOVE by Mamamia. CREDITS Guest: Karen Conti. You can find out more about...

Ruby Franke and her husband Kevin started posting their family online in 2015 under the pseudonym 8 Passengers. Things like birthday parties, grocery hauls, tips on getting toddlers to sleep through the night, and Sunday baking. It was an all-access pass inside their lives, and people loved it. But over the years, the criticism grew about the way Ruby and Kevin were choosing to discipline their kids. Fast forward to 2024, and Ruby and her business partner Jodie Hildebrandt were both charged...

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 agency to keep their lavish lifestyle intact. But her parent’s relationship was abusive, and when they finally split Holly’s mum met someone new that changed everything.  Simon was a heroin addict. Pretty soon her mother was too, and the family’s comfortable lifestyle collapsed as addiction took over. It didn’t take long for Holly and her siblings to...

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 her two children off to school and was never seen again. Arlene’s disappearance sparked the biggest missing person search in Scotland’s history. To this day her body has never been found. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise app? Click here to start a seven-day free trial of MOVE by Mamamia. CREDITS Guest: Dale...

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 by the deceased, he stands up and confesses. Sometimes, it’s a shocking secret. Sometimes, it's their last wish.  What started as a favour for a friend, has turned into Bill's life calling. And as he’ll tell you, it’s not an easy job, but it’s worth it. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise app? Click here to start a...

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 victims of crime.  Known as Australia’s ‘bug whisperer’, Paola is the global face of the specialist forensic science that uses insects and other small creatures to help solve murders, suspicious deaths and cold cases. She joins us today to take us behind the scenes of forensic entomology.  THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new...

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 world, no formal hierarchy, and no official places of worship. According to Laura, it's this secrecy and denial that has allowed abuse to flourish within the community. She joins us today to expose what she witnessed and experienced inside the group she calls The Truth. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise app?...

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. Sometimes the people on his table have been the victim of a crime. Sometimes they’ve simply died unexpectedly and he’s been tasked to find out why. As he’ll tell you, the job is not like what you see in movies or on TV. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Want to try our new exercise app? Click here to start a seven-day free trial of MOVE by...

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 about them.  And over the next month we're taking you behind the scenes of crime, interviewing a forensic pathologist, a cult survivor, a forensic scientist who uses insects and other small creatures to help solve crimes, and the world’s first and only Coffin Confessor. Hear True Crime Conversations’ Behind The Scenes Of Crime Special throughout...

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 sisters' former high school principal, and when whispers of their allegations came to light in 2008, she fled from her home in Melbourne to Israel before any formal complaint could be made.  It took 70 extradition hearings and 13 years to bring her back to Australia. But finally last year, Dassi was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Leifer was...

In 2016, Gypsy Rose Blanchard pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.  She admitted to planning and orchestrating the stabbing death of her mother Dee Dee at the hands of her boyfriend Nick Godejohn, who was convicted of first-degree murder. Nick remains behind bars, but in December 2023, Gypsy was released after serving eight years of her sentence.  This case is about more than just murder. It’s one of the most famous cases involving the alleged...

Stevie Munro is a Senior Correctional Officer with Moree Court Escort services, in charge of things like processing offenders who’ve just been arrested, and escorting them to and from court. She deals with prisoners from all over Australia, and has seen it all. Kicking, screaming, lashing out, attempted suicide… She is dealing with people during their most emotional times in prison. But as she will explain, her toughest days have nothing to do with the criminals themselves.  THE END...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. In the lead-up to the Beijing Winter Olympics, the world began to wonder how and if Peng Shuai would be used in the games, and whether the IOC was going to have anything to say to the Chinese Government about their silencing of the tennis star. So how did the Chinese propaganda juggernaut shift its attention to the global sporting stage? And what happens when the international community’s peak sporting...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. For three long weeks in November 2021, the tennis community, news organisations and human rights advocates the world over had one question; Where Is Peng Shuai? In the aftermath of a Weibo post detailing allegations of sexual assault against one of China’s top political figures, concerns for Peng Shuai's freedom were escalating swiftly. Then suddenly, proof of life. On this episode, we’ll learn more...

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 Peng Shuai - China’s beloved global tennis star - sat down and began typing. Truncated sentences of an open letter, detailing an affair and sexual assault involving one of China’s highest-ranking political figures, would go on to rock the international community. It took only a few minutes before the post had amassed thousands of shares, likes,...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. Belle Gibson spent years lying about her health. From those early skater chatroom claims that she had died on the operating table during heart surgery, to a terminal brain cancer diagnosis, and finally, revelations that cancer had spread through her entire body. She had built a business out of peddling her strategy for treating that cancer; with food. She said it was curing her, and could (for a small...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast. Belle Gibson was travelling to Queensland for a funeral when she was first contacted by Melbourne newspaper, The Age. Reporters were seeking clarification. They wanted to know exactly how much of the money that Belle was making was going to charity. By 2015, The Whole Pantry had become a hugely successful app, blog and book. Belle had always publicly pledged that a sizeable chunk of the money it was...

This episode was originally published as part of Mamamia’s Extraordinary Stories podcast.  Belle Gibson spent years lying about her health. From those early skater chatroom claims that she had died on the operating table during heart surgery, to a terminal brain cancer diagnosis, and finally, revelations that cancer had spread through her entire body. She had built a business out of peddling her strategy for treating that cancer; with food. She said it was curing her, and could (for a small...

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 Australia, as every parent's worst nightmare became reality for the Bell family. How could a young girl tucked up in her bed in a safe, suburban neighbourhood just go missing in the middle of the night?  It would take 30 years, and advances in DNA technology, to find out who was responsible for the disappearance of Louise Bell.  THE END...