True Crime Conversations

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...

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...

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 Murdaughs were one of South Carolina's most prominent legal families for nearly a century. They were so influential in the area, that locals nicknamed the county they practised in ‘Murdaugh country.’ 

But in 2019 a fatal boating accident put the family under a microscope, and what was uncovered about the Murdaughs over the next four years is almost too shocking to believe.

This story is complicated...

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 discharged army cadet opened fire on innocent civilians, murdering seven people and seriously injuring 19 more.

After the incident, a group of psychologists were tasked with analysing Knight to try to understand the motivations of such a callous, unprovoked attack. Our guest today was part of that team...

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 Russell Street post office in Melbourne. The sender and the intended recipient were unable to be identified at the time.  

Now, almost 60 years later, there are new leads in the case. Finally, after all this time, detectives might be on the precipice of solving this cold case...

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 investigation. One that forced police to re-investigate things they’d filed away as unimportant decades prior. 

Shanelle Dawson, Lynette's daughter, had already pieced together the truth before investigative journalist Hedley Thomas came knocking. But his podcast helped put her father behind bars...

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 murder of his cousin, Naden was on the run from 2005 until 2012. 

Today’s guest, Dimity Clancy, followed this story as it unfolded and was the journalist who first acquired and published Naden’s confession in 2016...

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 with her husband Ethel quickly became ill, and just over 48 hours later she was pronounced dead...

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 and mayhem, it was home to Victoria’s worst criminals. Everyone from Ned Kelly and Chopper Read, to mass murderers Julian Knight and Craig Minogue.

Pentridge officially closed in 1997 after decades of controversy...