True Crime Conversations

Michelle Burgess is one of Australia’s most infamous ‘black widows’ - a term given to female psychopaths who either kill or organise other men to kill other men.

In 2001, Michelle plotted two murders. The targets were her husband Darren, and a woman named Carolyn Matthews - a mother of three whose husband Kevin had become involved in an affair with Michelle...

In 2010, 52-year-old Des Campbell was found guilty of murdering his wife Janet Fisicaro. The pair had only been married six months when they embarked on a camping trip in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney. A trip that sadly only Des would survive. 

Initially he would tell police that Janet had fallen from a 50-metre cliff, but investigators would soon come to realise that the 49-year-old hadn’t fallen at all… she’d been pushed...

In January 2016, 49-year-old Karen Chetcuti was viscously attacked on her property in Whorouly, a rural town in north-eastern Victoria.

What happened to Karen at the hands of her neighbour, Michael Cardamone, was described as so unfeeling, so excessive and sadistically executed that those prosecuting him worked to make sure that Michael would never walk freely amongst the community again...

In the early 1990s, 21-year-old Paul Denyer terrorised the Victorian suburb of Frankston. He preyed on the local women; stalking, abducting and eventually murdering three young victims.

Their names were Elizabeth Stevens, Deborah Fream and Natalie Russell.

But after three decades behind bars, a parole board in Victoria must now consider an application to free the man behind what became known as the Frankston Murders...

In 1951, the discovery of a petrified female body in the raging floodwaters of the Murray River triggered an investigation that spanned multiple Australian states. And while evidence suggested foul play, the truth of her identity and what really happened to her would remain a mystery, with the death of a vital witness in the aftermath of the discovery leaving the case cold...

In August 2021, Gabby Petito went missing while on holiday with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie. The pair were six weeks into a four month trip across the United States.

They'd been living out of Gabby's specially decked out van, documenting and filming every adventure so she could share it on her growing social media platforms. But when the 22-year-old suddenly stopped posting, her family began to fear the worst...

In April 1990, a 21-year-old woman was found dead on the side of a highway in Oklahoma City. 

The investigation into her death, which initially seemed like a straight forward hit-and-run, would lead police to uncover a violent trail of lies, abuse, false identities, kidnapping and murder, spanning multiple decades. 

Journalist Matt Birkbeck, our guest today, spent two decades researching this case and played an integral role in uncovering the woman's true identity...

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, impoverished populations within urban areas were struggling to keep up with the rising number of abandoned children. And with little support or infrastructure in the way of social and government services, the responsibility to house these children fell largely on local parishes...

On the 23rd of September 2002, Dianne Brimble stepped aboard what should have been a ten-day cruise through New Caledonia and Vanuatu with her family. But within less than 24 hours, Dianne was found unconscious, in a strangers room.

The cabin belonged to four men, travelling as part of a bigger group of eight. The Adelaide Eight, as they’d soon become known. A group of young men ready to indulge in the vices of the infamous party cruise industry...

William Kamm is the self-proclaimed Messiah behind Australia’s biggest doomsday cult. 

After the inception of The Order of St Charbel in the late 1980s, Kamm spun of web of lies, peddling end of the world prophecies to coerce his trusted flock into subservience, with the promise of salvation. 

But when a young girl’s diary surfaced, the true horrors of life inside the community were revealed. A life of strict hierarchy, coercive control, and abuse...