True Crime Conversations

In 1969 Derek Percy was arrested for the brutal killing of 12 year old Yvonne Tuohy. 

While he was held responsible for that crime, a string of unsolved heinous child murders in the 60s bear chilling resemblance to that violent crime that put him behind bars. 

But Derek Percy never confessed to, nor was he convicted of the crimes he’s strongly suspected of having committed. He died in custody in 2013 as Victoria's longest serving prisoner, taking to the grave all his secrets...

Today’s episode is about one of Victoria’s most disturbing cases of familicide.

The death of Anna Kemp & her daughter Gracie at the hands of John Sharpe, the husband and father who’s crimes would see him branded ‘The Mornington Monster’. 

Our guest, Narelle Fraser, is a former Victorian Police officer, whose discoveries were instrumental in solving the case and bringing John to justice...

In September 2007, after a night out on Sydney’s iconic Oxford Street, 20-year-old Matthew Leveson went missing. 

Although police investigated his disappearance at the time, it would be a decade before they finally uncovered his body.

His 43-year-old boyfriend, Michael Atkins, was the last person to see Matt alive. His aversion to telling the truth about that night would torment Mathew’s family, see a murder acquittal, a coronial inquisition, and an historic immunity deal...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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 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...