True Crime Conversations

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...