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 the three people who were firing at them. But there are still many unanswered questions from that night, which will be examined when an inquest gets underway at the end of this month. 9News presenter and host of podcast The Ultimate Sacrifice, Melissa Downes, joins us to discuss the deadliest shooting in Queensland Police history. THE END...

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. But also, the perfect place to get away with murder.  Over the years, several people have gone missing there, never to be found again, and that very nearly happened to 74-year-old Russell Hill and 73-year-old Carol Clay.  But thanks to some careful police work, detectives were able to track down a man named Greg Lynn. And with his trial just...

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 abducted off the street in London’s south.  But Sarah wasn’t dragged away kicking and screaming. She went willingly with her captor because - as a serving police officer - he pretended to arrested her.  We speak to LBC journalist Henry Riley to revisit this crime, the impact it had on us and the changes that have been made since. THE END BITS ...

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 the Stutzmans were part of the Amish community. The very nature of their insular world meant the suspicious nature of Ida’s death went unspoken for many years. They rarely talk to outsiders, which is why author Greg Olsen had his work cut out for him when penning his latest book The Amish Wife.  But slowly, with the help of his researcher Robin...

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 after that Sunday night. Very little was done in the way of a police investigation in those early days, in fact it would be years until her case was actually taken seriously. A coronial inquest nearly a decade later determined that Bronwyn had likely been murdered. It went as far as recommending Jon be prosecuted - but that never happened.  ...

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.  Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents convicted in a US mass shooting, each receiving at least 10 years in prison.  Speaking with Sins of the Child podcast creators Jessica Lowther and Cooper Moll, we aim to unpick some of the most complex questions within this story about community, school responsibility and the role parents...

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 boyfriend, Tony, and her family learnt the horrendous details of her death. Six years since Australia erupted with anger at the circumstances surrounding her murder.  Our guest Sarah Krasnostein is a criminal law expert and award-winning author of The Trauma Cleaner, The Believer and the Quarterly Essay Not Waving, Drowning: Mental Illness and...

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, they soon discover that something doesn't seem right.  Was the 24-year-old really the Olympic-caliber figure skater, award-winning pianist and straight-A student she had led her parents to believe? Or was she a high school drop out who had hired hitmen to brutally carry out their murder? Ahead of a controversial retrial, House of Mystery...

When Kirra-Lea McLoughlin died on a property near Gympie, Queensland, law enforcement and medical examiners were baffled. Kirra’s former partner would claim she went to sleep after a fight and simply didn’t wake up. Family said there had been a party at the property the night before, but neighbours disputed that. Kirra’s body had 105 signs of bruising, and there was a 12 hour period where emergency services weren’t contacted about her rapidly declining state. Former police officer Jamie...

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 Edwards returned from work that day to a wall of lights and sirens in front of her home. Police wouldn't let her inside, but she knew almost instantly who was responsible for whatever evil had happened inside her house. She knew there was only one reason police would be at her doorstep.  “It’s my husband,” she told police. “It’s my husband. We...

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 murdered her. Before that the abuse had been verbal. Emotional.  Tara did everything ‘right’. She followed advice and took steps in the system designed to protect her, even though she was nervous about how he might react.  And then she died, in the most horrendous of ways, while cradling her one-week-old daughter. Her murder changed the fabric of...

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 coroner ruled that no one could have predicted that Luke would be killed by his father, but the inquest did point out several gaps in the family violence system in the lead-up to his death.  Ten years on, Luke's mother Rosie remains on the frontline campaigning for change. THE END BITS Subscribe to Mamamia Find out more about Mamamia's charity...

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?...