The Veil

5, 4, 3, 2, 1: The Incredible True Story of How Australian Police Trapped Daniel Morcombe’s Killer, Part One of Three On Sunday 7 December 2003, thirteen year old Daniel Morcombe walked from his family’s farm at Palmwoods to wait for a bus under the Kiel Mountain Road overpass on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. He was going to Sunshine Plaza to buy Christmas presents for his family. The bus was running late, and when it finally came it drove straight past him. Minutes later, the next bus found nobody there. What followed became the largest investigation in Queensland’s history: thousands of interviews, a hunt for a blue car, a million dollar reward and a family who never stopped pushing. Seven years on, a coronial inquest put a man in the witness box for two days, and he gave nothing away. But on the flight home, someone sat down beside him. This is Part One of a three part series. Subscribers get all three parts today. On the free feed, Part Two, The Gang, is out Wednesday and Part Three follows on Friday. SUBSCRIBE One Brevity Studios subscription unlocks every part of every series on the day it launches, plus all of Guilt: https://guilt.supportingcast.fm/ FURTHER READING Kate Kyriacou, The Sting: The Undercover Operation That Caught Daniel Morcombe’s Killer (Echo Publishing). This series relies heavily on Kate’s reporting, and her book is highly recommended: https://booktopia.com.au/the-sting-kate-kyriacou/book/9781760681036.html THE DANIEL MORCOMBE FOUNDATION Bruce and Denise Morcombe founded the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in 2005 to teach children how to keep themselves safe. Learn more about their work: https://danielmorcombe.com.au Support the foundation: https://danielmorcombe.com.au/get-involved/ A NOTE ON SOURCING Brett Peter Cowan was convicted in 2014 of the murder of Daniel Morcombe. His appeal was dismissed by the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2015 and the High Court refused special leave in 2016. His earlier offending is described only as recorded by the coroner and the Court of Appeal. Every other person of interest in the investigation is unnamed, and none has been charged with any offence relating to Daniel. Persons of interest at the inquest were identified by code under suppression orders. The account of the bus and roadside witnesses follows the 2019 coronial findings, which note that some accounts conflict. Details of Daniel’s life and family come from Kate Kyriacou’s The Sting and from published interviews with the Morcombe family, and are attributed on air. SOURCES Coroners Court of Queensland, findings of inquest into the death of Daniel James Morcombe, State Coroner Terry Ryan, 5 Apr 2019 R v Cowan [2013] QSC 337, 12 Dec 2013 R v Cowan; R v Cowan; Ex parte Attorney-General (Qld) [2015] QCA 87, 21 May 2015 Cowan v The Queen [2016] HCATrans 57, 11 Mar 2016 Kate Kyriacou, The Sting (Echo Publishing, 2015) ABC News, coverage of the inquest, 1 and 6 Apr 2011 ABC News, 2009 (reward appeal) and 3 Dec 2012 (committal) ABC 7.30, interview with former detective Kenneth King Stephanie Wood, Brisbane Times / Sydney Morning Herald, 2014 (trial coverage) Brisbane Times, 2015 (Daniel Morcombe Foundation) Newcastle Herald, 2023 (interview with Bruce Morcombe) SUPPORT This episode deals with the abduction of a child. If it raises anything for you: Lifeline 13 11 14 (Australia), Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (Australia), 1737 (New Zealand). Written and Researched with AI assistance and fact-checked against the coronial findings and court judgments. A Brevity Studios production. https://theguiltpodcast.com | https://brevityplus.com While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Subscribe to The Veil get ad free listening, bonus episodes and early release and listen on any platform via Supporting Cast here: https://guilt.supportingcast.fm/ On Wednesday 6 October 1993, seventeen year old Allison Newstead went into Cessnock, a coal town in the NSW Hunter Valley, and never came home. Her car was found the next morning in the ex-servicemen's club carpark. A week later two men walking a bush track near the disused Pelton colliery found her body under two sheets of corrugated iron. She had no wounds and no fractures, toxicology ruled out an overdose, and the cause of her death has never been established. Her clothes turned up a year later in a plastic bag in other bushland. A man charged with concealing her body was acquitted in 1997. Police now say several people may have been there when Allison died. Who were they, and why has nobody spoken? Thanks to listener Caroline for suggesting this case. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING The NSW Government reward of $750,000 for information into Allison's death still stands. The case is with the State Crime Command's Unsolved Homicide Unit, Strike Force Bain. Police especially want to hear from people who knew Allison in 1993 and have never spoken to them, including anyone who may have been present when she died or who knows the circumstances of her death. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. Please do not report information via NSW Police social media pages. The NSW Legislative Council inquiry into unsolved murders and long-term missing persons cases (1965 to 2010) is taking submissions until 30 October 2026: parliament.nsw.gov.au (search "unsolved murders inquiry"). A NOTE ON SOURCING No one has ever been convicted in connection with Allison's death. The 1994 inquest was terminated and referred to the DPP, so no coronial finding exists. A man charged with concealing her body and perverting the course of justice was acquitted by a jury in 1997; he is not guilty in law and is not named. A second man, per 2013 reporting, pleaded guilty to supplying amphetamines; no court has linked that offence to her death. The account of three people denying they saw Allison that night is her mother's, given to the Daily Telegraph in 2013; police have made no finding against anyone. The 1993 timeline comes from AAP reports in the Canberra Times. The purse detail is from 2018 reporting only. Police say evidence including her clothing is being re-examined; no result has been published. The working theory in Part Three is the host's reading of the public record, not a finding of any court or coroner. As of 26 October 2026 nobody has been charged over how Allison died. SOURCES NSW Police, $750,000 reward, Death of Allison Newstead: police.nsw.gov.au/can_you_help_us/rewards NSW Government Gazette No. 11, 3 Feb 1995, p700 (reward notice, 9 Dec 1994), via Trove Canberra Times (AAP), 10, 11, 15, 16 and 17 Oct 1993, via Trove Janet Fife-Yeomans, Daily Telegraph, 7 Oct 2013 Belinda-Jane Davis, Maitland Mercury / Newcastle Herald, Oct 2013 Matt Carr and Nick Bielby, Newcastle Herald, 5 and 6 Oct 2018 Krystal Sellars, Cessnock Advertiser, 29 Jun 2022; Gabriel Fowler, Newcastle Herald, 23 Jun 2022 (Operation Veritas) Carly Cook, ABC News, 22 Oct 2022 Simon McCarthy and Sam Rigney, Newcastle Herald, 22 and 23 Oct 2022 NSW LC Portfolio Committee No. 1, inquiry into unsolved murders and long-term missing persons cases, hearing transcript 11 Jun 2026 and terms of reference Cessnock Advertiser, Pelton colliery history, 2016 SUPPORT This episode discusses the death of a teenager and its effect on her family. If it raises anything for you: Lifeline 13 11 14 (Australia), 1737 (New Zealand). While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At 9pm on Sunday 10 October 2004, 25 year old Iraena Asher rang 111 from a house on Piha Road. She said she was afraid, that a man was pressuring her for sex, and that she had been given drugs. Police sent a taxi, which went to the wrong side of Auckland. A local family took her in for four hours. Just after 1am she walked out into a stormy night, and she was last seen naked under a streetlight, walking down Seaview Road towards the beach. A coroner found she went into the sea and drowned, and that the police failure to send a car contributed. Her body has never been found, and nobody saw her beyond the second streetlight. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING If you were at Piha on the night of 10 to 11 October 2004, stayed at the Piha camp ground that weekend, or know anything about Iraena's last day or her disappearance, please contact: Police non emergency: 105, or online at police.govt.nz Crime Stoppers (anonymous): 0800 555 111, crimestoppers-nz.org A NOTE ON SOURCING The heart of this episode is the Police Complaints Authority report of 18 January 2006, which includes transcripts of Iraena's calls with police, and the High Court judgment Carroll v Coroner's Court at Auckland [2013] NZHC 906, which reproduces parts of Coroner Peter Ryan's 2012 findings. The full coronial findings were not available online and were not obtained. Nobody has ever been charged in connection with Iraena's disappearance, and the coroner found no evidence of foul play. The people at the Piha Road house are not named in this episode, and some witnesses at the inquest had name suppression. Nothing in this episode suggests wrongdoing by anyone at that house. In 2013 the High Court quashed the coroner's finding that Julia Woodhouse, Bobbie Carroll and Henry Woodhouse contributed to her death, finding it rested on speculation. The findings that Iraena drowned and that the police failure contributed still stand. Some details, including where the taxi went and accounts of the inquest evidence, come from contemporaneous reporting in the NZ Herald, Stuff and RNZ. SOURCES Police Complaints Authority, report on the 111 call made by Iraena Asher, 18 Jan 2006 (ipca.govt.nz) Carroll v Coroner's Court at Auckland [2013] NZHC 906, 29 Apr 2013 (coronerscourt.govt.nz) NZ Police media releases, 12 to 28 Oct and 30 Nov 2004, 28 Feb 2005, 3 Jan 2023 Communications Centres Service Centre Independent External Review, May 2005 NZ Herald, Juliet Rowan, 15 Nov 2004; Anna Leask, 17 and 19 Jul 2012; Phil Taylor, 20 Sep 2019 Stuff, Kirsty Johnston, 18 Jul 2012 RNZ, 17 and 19 Jul 2012; 29 Apr 2013; Sam Olley, 16 Jan 2023 NZ Listener, Sarah Catherall, 22 Jan 2024 SUPPORT This episode discusses mental illness, a disappearance, sexual pressure and drowning. If it has raised anything for you: 1737, free call or text, any time Safe to Talk (sexual harm): 0800 044 334 Alcohol Drug Helpline: 0800 787 797 Youthline: 0800 376 633 While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 2 December 2010, 24 year old Phoebe Handsjuk was found dying in the ground floor refuse room of her St Kilda Road apartment building, after coming down the rubbish chute from the twelfth floor. Police first treated it as suicide. Her grandfather, a retired detective, did not believe she could have climbed in. In 2014 Coroner Peter White found she entered the chute herself in a sleepwalking-like state brought on by Stilnox and alcohol, and that no one else was involved. The family has never accepted it, and the questions about the chute, the lost CCTV and the missing notes remain. Suggested by listener Angela. IN MEMORY Phoebe Handsjuk, 9 May 1986 to 2 December 2010. Baillee Schneider, 19 February 1993 to 23 June 2018. A NOTE ON SOURCING This episode is built on two published coronial findings: Coroner Peter White's finding into Phoebe's death (COR 2010 4605, 10 December 2014, amended February 2015) and Deputy State Coroner Caitlin English's finding into Baillee's death (COR 2018 3002, 23 April 2020). Coroner White found Phoebe's death was not the result of an assault by, or with the aid of, any other person. Coroner English found Baillee's death was not suspicious. The man both women were in a relationship with is not named. He has never been charged with any offence, he denied any involvement on oath, both coroners found no one else was involved, and nothing in this episode suggests otherwise. The Coroners Court of Victoria made non-publication orders over parts of the inquest material in Phoebe's case; this episode uses only the published finding and open court reporting. Phoebe's family does not accept the finding. SOURCES Coroners Court of Victoria, Finding into death with inquest, Phoebe Handsjuk, COR 2010 4605: coronerscourt.vic.gov.au Coroners Court of Victoria, Finding into death without inquest, Baillee Petra Schneider, COR 2018 3002: coronerscourt.vic.gov.au ABC News, 9 August 2013 and 10 December 2014; 21 June 2018 The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, Richard Baker and Michael Bachelard, Phoebe's Fall (2016) and related reporting; Richard Baker, 24 June 2019 and 16 June 2020 Wendy Carlisle, RadioDoc Review, Vol 3(2), 2017 Robin Bowles, Into the Darkness: The Mysterious Death of Phoebe Handsjuk (Scribe, 2016) Premier of Victoria, Coroners Court appeal process to be reviewed, 16 December 2016; Victorian Coronial Council, report on rights to appeal coronial findings, 2017 phoebehandsjuk.com (family site) SUPPORT This episode discusses depression and a death by suicide. If you are struggling, please reach out. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14, Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636, Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467. New Zealand: 1737 (call or text), Lifeline 0800 543 354. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a Thursday night in November 1994, sixteen year old Gordana Kotevski left Charlestown Square to walk about 500 metres to her aunt's house on Powell Street. A passing driver saw two young men at a white Toyota Hilux, then a girl walking with a shopping bag. Minutes later her aunt heard screams and men's voices. Gordana's torn bag and her purse were left near the house. A 2003 inquest found she was deceased, most likely as a result of foul play. In 2026 police searched properties at Edgeworth and West Wallsend, excavated an Edgeworth backyard, and appealed for two anonymous callers from 1994 and 1996. Nobody has ever been charged. Suggested by listener Rene. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING A NSW Government reward of $1,000,000 is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for Gordana's disappearance. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or nsw.crimestoppers.com.au (confidential). Strike Force Bambil, Belmont Detectives: 02 4922 8774, SFBambil@police.nsw.gov.au (per NSW Police, June 2026). Police want to hear from the man who rang Newcastle Police Station about 6.50pm on Monday 5 December 1994, and the man who rang KOFM Newcastle about 9.25pm on Wednesday 18 September 1996, and from anyone who saw a light coloured, single cab Toyota Hilux with a silver work tray around Charlestown in late 1994. The NSW Legislative Council inquiry into unsolved murders and long term missing persons cases (1965 to 2010) names Gordana, Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson in its terms of reference. Submissions close 30 October 2026. A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has ever been charged over Gordana's disappearance and no court has found anyone responsible. Corey Lovett was named as a person of interest at the 2003 inquest; he has never been charged and is presumed innocent. The allegation about him was never tested, and we could not find whether he gave evidence. He is named because the inquest named him and the lost statement is part of the case. The written 2003 finding is not published online; inquest evidence comes from contemporaneous ABC and Sydney Morning Herald court reports. Police have not said what was seized in April 2026 or what the May excavation found. The theory in Part Three is the host's reading of the public record, not a police or coronial finding. The investigation is open. SOURCES NSW Police reward page and releases, 4 May and 26 June 2026: police.nsw.gov.au SMH, Greg Wendt, Witness hypnosis called for in lost girl case, 6 Nov 2002 SMH, Les Kennedy, On the scent without a clue, 9 Jul 2003 ABC News, 5 and 6 Mar 2003; 27 Feb 2009; 25 May 2022; 24 Nov 2023; 18 Jul 2025; 4 May 2026 ABC News, Hickie and Robinson rewards, 16 Aug 2021; Torana lead, 25 Nov 2019 Newcastle Herald, 2009 to 2026 coverage, incl. Dan Proudman (2011) Newcastle Weekly, Rod Thompson, 2024 to 2026 New Idea, 2020 (Peggy Kotevski interview) news.com.au, Nathan Jolly, 2016 NSW Legislative Council, Q&A No. 78 (2023) and inquiry 3148 terms of reference NSW Coroners Court, State Coroner's report on deaths in custody 2006 (Coroners Act 1980 s 19) Crime Commission Act 2012 (NSW), ss 21, 24, 39, 39A AAP, October 2024 (police statement on common offender) Australian Missing Persons Register profile: missingpersons.gov.au SUPPORT This episode discusses the abduction and suspected murder of a teenager. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14, 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. New Zealand: 1737, Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At about 7.30pm on Sunday 10 July 2005, 22-year-old Katrina Jefferies left the Mt Roskill home she shared with her mother, her younger brother and her 20-month-old son. On the morning of Tuesday 12 July she was found partly undressed on a bank beside Waikowhai Road, wrapped in a red tarpaulin, a yellow raincoat and black rubbish bags, about a kilometre from home. She had been killed somewhere else. The police have never said how she died. They have traced everything found with her to one Mt Roskill address, and believe more than one person knows what happened. As of October 2026, nobody has been charged. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Police want to hear from anyone who saw Katrina between the evening of Sunday 10 July and Tuesday 12 July 2005, or who knows where she went and who she was with. They also want to hear from anyone who was in Waikowhai Reserve or around Hillsborough Road in the early hours of Tuesday 12 July 2005. And they are asking about the red tarpaulin, the yellow Stormwear raincoat, the black rubbish bags, a framed river and mountain print signed "Haver", and a piece of marine plywood found with her, and about the clothes she left home in, which have never been found: blue tracksuit pants, a black duffle coat, burgundy slip-on shoes (size 10), a peaked cap and a black Walkman cassette player. Call 0800 COLD CASE (0800 2653 2273), use the cold case contact form at police.govt.nz , or call Police on 105. Anonymous information: Crime Stoppers 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-nz.org . A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has ever been charged with Katrina's death, and no court has made any finding against any person. In November 2011 Coroner Gordon Matenga found that she died at the hands of another and suppressed the cause of death, which has never been published. We did not obtain the full text of the finding and rely on contemporaneous reporting of it. The man charged in 2014 after Operation Lyra interviews was convicted of offending against other women; police have said those charges were unrelated to Katrina, and nothing in the public record connects him to her death. The 2016 claim reported by One News is untested. The investigation remains open. SOURCES NZ Police, Cold Case: Katrina Jefferies, 2005: police.govt.nz/stolenwanted/coldcase/2019/katrina-jefferies-2005 NZ Police releases, 13, 14 and 21 Jul 2005, 26 Aug 2005, 25 Jun 2007 and 23 Jun 2019 Kirsty Wynn, "Haunted by the death of Katrina", Herald on Sunday, 31 Jul 2005 Martin Johnston, NZ Herald, 26 Aug 2005 NZPA, "Murdered woman died 'highly unusual death'", 26 Jul 2005, and "Mother thinks of her murdered daughter every day", 26 Jun 2007, via nzherald.co.nz NZ Herald, "Jefferies family now have body", 19 Jul 2005; "New murder information 'contradicts earlier statement'", 3 Jul 2007; "Woman claims lead on 2005 cold case", 20 Apr 2016 Elizabeth Binning and Louisa Cleave, "Unsolved: the murder mysteries of 2005", NZ Herald, 2 Jan 2006 "More false confessions in cold case", NZPA via ODT, 21 Nov 2011 Jared Savage, NZ Herald, 24 May 2016 and 23 Jun 2019 RNZ and 1News, 23 Jun 2019 High Court sentencing in the Marie Jamieson case, [2010] NZHC 540 SUPPORT This episode discusses the killing of a young mother. If it raises anything for you: 1737 (call or text), Victim Support 0800 842 846, Alcohol Drug Helpline 0800 787 797. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before dawn on 28 April 1998, Claire "Lisa" Hills, a 30-year-old McDonald's shift manager, left her Herne Bay flat for a 3.30am start at Auckland Airport and never arrived. About three hours later a woman walking on Māngere Mountain watched a man set a car alight beside the sports clubrooms, then came face to face with him as he ran. Lisa was in the back seat, alive but probably unconscious. A DNA profile believed to be her killer's has excluded the police's original prime suspect and around 300 other men, and it has never matched anyone on the New Zealand or Australian databanks. Police say all they need is a name. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Call Operation Hills on 0800 OP HILLS (0800 674 4557) or Police on 105. To stay anonymous, call Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111. Police have asked about: anyone who saw a black Mazda Familia hatchback in South Auckland between 3am and 6am on 28 April 1998; the steering wheel lock missing from her car; where the killer got the petrol, which police believe he brought in a container; a slim man in dark clothing, possibly in a hooded sweatshirt, seen running from Māngere Domain towards the motorway and Māngere Bridge shops; and anyone with concerns about a person's behaviour after April 1998. Police say they can assure confidentiality, and that simply offering a name could be the key. A NOTE ON SOURCING No one has ever been charged in connection with Lisa's death, and no court has made any finding against any person. The coroner found that she died of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning after being left in a car set on fire by a person or persons unknown. The men described in this episode as suspects, including the man the first inquiry suspected, are not named. Police have said publicly that DNA excluded both her estranged husband and a convicted South Auckland rapist who matches that description. The police reconstruction of the abduction at traffic lights is their best reading, not a proven sequence. Witness accounts come from police statements and the witness's 2018 interview with the Herald on Sunday. Published times for the fire vary between about 5.25am and 5.45am. SOURCES Anna Leask, "Claire Hills murder cold-case: witness tells of coming face-to-face with killer", Herald on Sunday, 22 Apr 2018 Anna Leask, "Cold case: police look to search overseas in hunt for Claire Hills' killer", Herald on Sunday, 22 Apr 2018 "Someone knows Claire Hills' killer", Herald on Sunday editorial, 22 Apr 2018 Tony Wall, "Police: we know who killed Claire Hills" and "Baffling murder mystery", NZ Herald, Jun 2000 Scott Inglis, "New police team to hunt Claire Hills' killer", NZ Herald, Jun 2000 Tony Stickley, "Claire Hills police 'grasping at straws'", NZ Herald, Jun 2000 Scott Inglis, "Police need more evidence in Claire Hills murder case", NZ Herald, 28 Apr 2001 NZPA, "Horror death still haunts investigators", NZ Herald, 10 May 2002 Patrick Gower, "Book remains open on five-year-old murder", NZ Herald, 29 Apr 2003 NZPA, "Killer must be haunted by murder, say police", NZ Herald, 9 Dec 2009 Anna Leask, "A Moment In Crime: Murder at Mangere Mountain", NZ Herald podcast, Jul 2021 SUPPORT This episode discusses sexual violence and a violent death. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334 (24/7, sexual harm), 1737 (call or text). In Australia: 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732, Lifeline 13 11 14. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the night of 29 January 1976, thirteen-year-old Tracey Ann Patient left a friend's house in Henderson, West Auckland, and ran for home along Great North Road, late for her 9.30 curfew. She was last seen about five minutes from her front door. The next morning a man walking his dog found her body in bush beside a layby on Scenic Drive in the Waitākere Ranges, strangled with pantyhose tightened with a piece of wood. Nearly two years later an anonymous caller led police to her missing ring, wrapped in tissue in an Avondale rubbish bin, and gave them a six-digit number, 126040. The caller promised to ring back and never did. Nobody has ever been charged. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Information can be given anonymously through Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 (crimestoppers-nz.org), or to Police on 105, quoting reference 990810/0373. Over the years police have asked about the meaning of the number 126040, about the identity of the person who rang Henderson police on 22 November 1977, about the driver of a cream or white 1967 Mark II Ford Cortina seen on Great North Road near Edmonton Road that night, and about anyone who has kept quiet about what they know. Tracey's sister Debbie asks people to come forward even if the person they suspect has died. A NOTE ON SOURCING No one has ever been charged in connection with Tracey's death, and no court has made any finding against any person. The coroner recorded a finding of homicide by strangulation with a ligature. Over fifty years police have examined hundreds of persons of interest. None is named in this episode, and anyone who was questioned and cleared is presumed innocent. Accounts from 1976 and 1977 come from New Zealand Press Association reports carried in The Press and accessed through Papers Past. Contemporary police statements say the pantyhose were not Tracey's, while some later reporting describes them as her own. Later police statements date the ring call to 1978, but contemporaneous reports put it at 22 November 1977. Debbie Sheppard's words come from her published interviews. The investigation remains open. SOURCES The Press (NZPA reports), 31 Jan 1976 to 18 Oct 1990, via Papers Past: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz "Police hunt for murderer of strangled girl", The Press, 31 Jan 1976 "Car driver may have lead to girl's murder", The Press, 2 Feb 1976 "Evidence body was moved", The Press, 12 Feb 1976 "Tracey Patient reward of $10,000", The Press, 22 May 1976 "Ring a new clue in death?", The Press, 16 Dec 1977 "Patient inquest closed", The Press, 7 Feb 1978 "Numbers mystery in Tracy Patient case", The Press, 12 Dec 1980 NZ Police media release, Jan 2016: police.govt.nz Lynley Ward, "Tracey Ann Patient killing: the 40-year murder mystery", NZ Herald, 28 Jan 2016 "New witness in Tracey Ann Patient cold case", NZ Herald, 3 Jul 2016 Matthew Gray, "Tracey Ann Patient: the case that shocked a nation", Stuff, 29 Jan 2016 "Mystery remains in cold case murder", Timaru Herald, 26 Oct 2016 RNZ, "Mystery of 40-year-old murder case continues", Oct 2016 Jared Savage, "What happened to Tracey Ann Patient in cold case murder 49 years ago?", NZ Herald, 29 Jan 2025 Debbie Sheppard with Claudia Siron, "Cold case murder: Do you know who killed Tracey Ann Patient?", that's life!, 9 Apr 2025 SUPPORT This episode discusses the murder of a child. If it raises anything for you: 1737 (call or text), Youthline 0800 376 633, Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. In Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the night of 1 October 1928, seventeen-year-old Elsie Walker vanished from her aunt and uncle's farm at Pāpāmoa, near Te Puke, in her apron and sand shoes. The family car vanished with her. By morning it was parked in a Papatoetoe street, with fuel for about 275 kilometres burned and a wheel changed on the road. Four days later a boy found Elsie's body under scrub in a scoria pit at Panmure. Police said she had driven herself. The coroner said she couldn't drive, that a man was at the wheel, and that he could not say who. Two inquiries, a 15,000-signature petition and a change to the law later, the case has never been solved. A NOTE ON SOURCING Elsie's cousin, William Alfred Bayly, was publicly suspected at the time but was never charged with any offence connected to her death. At the 1929 inquest he swore he was in Auckland on 1 October 1928, and the police told the inquest they had found no evidence placing him anywhere near Pāpāmoa. The later claims that he was seen on a train that day came from witnesses whose earlier statements to police contradicted them, and the Minister of Justice rejected them. No court ever made any finding about him in relation to Elsie Walker. In 1934 he was convicted of murdering Samuel and Christobel Lakey at Ruawaro, and he was executed that year. That conviction is not evidence about Elsie's death, and this episode does not treat it as such. He is named because everyone involved is long dead, the suspicion against him is part of the public historical record, and it shaped everything that followed. Courtroom testimony in this episode comes from the New Zealand Herald's day-by-day reporting of the January 1929 inquest. It is close to verbatim but it is press gallery reporting, not a transcript. The coroner's original file (Archives New Zealand, J46 1929/187) has not been digitised and was not consulted. One claim reported only by NZ Truth is not used in the narration. The coroner's open finding still stands: death from concussion following a blow to the head, with nothing to show whether the blow was accidental or deliberate. SOURCES New Zealand Herald, inquest coverage, 8 Oct 1928 to 26 Jan 1929, and follow-up coverage Feb to Nov 1929, via Papers Past: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz Coroner's finding, reported in "The Tamaki Mystery: Open Verdict Given", NZ Herald, 26 Jan 1929: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19290126.2.105 Auckland Star, 6 and 8 Oct 1928, via Papers Past NZ Truth, "New developments in Elsie Walker mystery", 8 Aug 1929: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19290808.2.26 "Police Exonerated", report of the Page Commission, NZ Herald, 5 Apr 1929: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19290405.2.114 Statement by the Minister of Justice on the Elsie Walker case, AJHR 1929, H-28: paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1929-I.2.3.2.33 Public Petitions Committee reports, AJHR 1929, I-01 (Petition No. 414): paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1929-I.2.3.3.1 Police annual report, AJHR 1929, H-16 "Reopening of Inquests: Legislation Passed", Auckland Star, 30 Sep 1930, via Papers Past "Elsie Walker's Death: Reference in Bayly Case", Pahiatua Herald, 18 Jan 1934, via Papers Past Northcroft clemency memorial, reported in NZ Herald, 14 Jul 1934, via Papers Past Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, "Bayly, William Alfred": teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4b15/bayly-william-alfred Archives New Zealand catalogue, coronial records for the Walker and Lakey cases: collections.archives.govt.nz While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She was removed from her parents at two and placed under the parental responsibility of the Minister. Between two and fifteen she went through thirteen different carers and care facilities, and in her last two years she was reported missing thirty three times. Just after midnight on 26 October 2012, police found the fifteen year old inside a Strathfield boarding house, did a risk assessment and left her there. One of the adults present had given them a false name. A sergeant filed a Child at Risk report at two in the morning. Nobody followed it up, and she was not reported missing for another eight days. In 2020 a coroner found she is dead, and that she died in suspicious circumstances. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING A $500,000 NSW Government reward stands for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Katrina's disappearance or death, and for information leading to her recovery. The investigation is Strike Force Delange, run by detectives at Auburn. Following the coroner's recommendation the case was referred to the NSW Police Unsolved Homicide Unit. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000, or nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence and you do not have to give your name. In November 2019 police released a photograph taken from Katrina's own Facebook page in the months before she disappeared, showing her with an unidentified man with a shaved head, and asked the public to help identify him. He has not been publicly identified. Police have never established where Katrina was sleeping during the last three months of her life. She told a cousin she had a little flat and was happy there. It has never been found. A NOTE ON SOURCING This episode is built on the findings of Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes, 2 October 2020, delivered after eleven hearing days and read in full. The coroner found Katrina died on or after 26 October 2012, that the evidence does not allow findings as to the place, manner or cause of her death, and that she died in suspicious circumstances. She found the people last with Katrina gave inconsistent and varying versions of when they last saw her, then expressly declined to comment further because the police investigation is ongoing. Nobody has ever been charged. No court has made any adverse finding against any person in connection with Katrina's disappearance. Her father is named because she carries his surname, because he gave evidence at the inquest, and because he candidly accepted there that he was not a good role model for her. Nothing here suggests he had any involvement in her disappearance, and the coroner made no such finding. Other adults associated with the Strathfield address are deliberately not named, for the reason the coroner gave. The coroner made no recommendations against the Department of Communities and Justice, on the basis that without a finding as to manner of death she could not assess how significant its shortcomings were. Katrina's caseworker is not named here. SOURCES Inquest findings, Deputy State Coroner Carmel Forbes, 2 October 2020: coroners.nsw.gov.au NSW Police, reward and appeal, Strike Force Delange: police.nsw.gov.au ABC News, Patrick Begley, on the delay in naming Katrina publicly, 19 Nov 2019 Yahoo News Australia, on the Facebook photograph, 28 Nov 2019 SUPPORT This episode deals with a missing child, the death of a teenager, children in state care, family violence and drug use. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14. Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. New Zealand: Need to talk? 1737. Youthline 0800 376 633. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For about three weeks in December 2013, a homeless woman caught the same bus out of Liverpool at eight each night, sat in the same seat, fell asleep, and was woken at her stop by the driver. Each time there were more bandages around her head. She begged in shopping centres, walked into a hospital lobby and declined a doctor. On 4 January 2014 police found Monika Chetty in bushland at West Hoxton with full thickness acid burns to eighty per cent of her body, injuries a surgeon later put at three to four weeks old. She died four weeks after that. In 2024 a coroner found she was killed. Nobody has ever been charged. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING A $500,000 NSW Government reward stands for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Ms Chetty's death. The investigation is Strike Force Lanlo, and following the coroner's recommendation it was referred in June 2024 to the NSW Police Force's Unsolved Homicide Team for further review and evaluation. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000, or nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. Four specific things have never been answered. Who supplied roughly nine litres of acid in Sydney's south west in late 2013. Where she was lying when it was poured on her. Who paid her up to $20,000 for an immigration visa that never came. And who she was speaking to on the telephone in the last days of December, when a bus driver heard her whisper, why are you doing this to me. In 2014 police specifically asked Sydney's Sikh and Hindu communities for information about her final weeks. A NOTE ON SOURCING This episode is built on the coronial finding of Magistrate Elaine Truscott, handed down on 28 March 2024, which was read in full, and on the Commissioner of Police's response of 14 June 2024. The coroner found that Monika Chetty's death was the result of a homicide by a person or persons unknown, and that the cause of death was complications from burns, those burns being from acid doused over 80 per cent of her body. She found the fatal burns were caused by another person or persons, in circumstances other than those Monika described to police. Four people were separately represented at the inquest. All are living, none has ever been charged, and the coroner made no adverse finding against any of them. Non-publication orders were made during the hearing. None of them is named or identified in this episode, and that is deliberate. Monika Chetty is widely described in reporting as a nurse. The coroner's finding does not. It records that she worked in a nursing home between 2001 and 2003 and was otherwise not formally employed. This episode follows the finding. The NSW Police reward page and contemporaneous reporting date the discovery to 3 January 2014. The coronial finding says 4 January. The finding is followed here and the conflict is stated on air. SOURCES Inquest into the death of Monika Chetty, findings of Magistrate Truscott, 28 March 2024: coroners.nsw.gov.au Response of the Commissioner of Police to the coronial recommendation, 14 June 2024: dcj.nsw.gov.au NSW Police, reward and appeal, Strike Force Lanlo: police.nsw.gov.au ABC News, reporting on the case in February 2014, including Superintendent James Johnson and Ronald Chetty ABC News, inquest coverage, November 2020 SUPPORT This episode describes serious burn injuries, homelessness, gambling addiction and the death of a woman. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14. Gambling Help 1800 858 858. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. New Zealand: Need to talk? 1737. Gambling Helpline 0800 654 655. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She published a local newspaper out of her own front room and used it to fight a developer who wanted to put three forty-five storey towers on her street. On a Friday morning she walked into the Carousel Cabaret in Kings Cross for a meeting about advertising, rang her business partner at half past ten to say she was running late, and was never seen again. Two men were later convicted of conspiring to abduct her four days earlier. Nobody has ever been charged over her disappearance. In 1983 a coroner's jury found police inquiries had been inhibited by an atmosphere of corruption. Eleven years later a federal parliamentary committee found something else. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING A $1 million reward, announced on 21 June 2021, stands for information about the 1975 disappearance and suspected murder of Juanita Nielsen, or for the location of her remains. The case is held by the Unsolved Homicide Team as Strike Force Euclid. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000, or nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. Do not report through police social media. A NOTE ON SOURCING Juanita Nielsen has never been found. There is no body, no scene and no cause of death. The only physical trace ever recovered is her handbag and personal effects, found on a freeway near Penrith on 7 July 1975. Nobody has ever been charged over her disappearance or death. Two men, Eddie Trigg and Shayne Martin-Simmonds, were convicted of conspiring to kidnap her on 30 June 1975, four days before she vanished. A third man charged with that conspiracy, Lloyd Marshall, was acquitted in 1980 and is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Frank Theeman, Abe Saffron, James McCartney Anderson and Fred Krahe are all named in this episode. All four are dead. None was ever charged in connection with Juanita Nielsen. Theeman, Saffron and Anderson each denied involvement on oath at the 1983 inquest. The committee that examined Anderson's dealings with the National Crime Authority recorded that he had apparently never been convicted of any offence. Loretta Crawford's 2004 television account has never been tested in a criminal court and no one has been charged as a result of it. This episode reports that she made the allegation. It does not repeat the names of the individuals she placed at the scene. The 1983 coronial finding of City Coroner Bert Wilson is not published online. Its wording here is taken from the Australian Dictionary of Biography. The 1984 internal police inquiry that cleared three senior officers was not obtained. SOURCES The National Crime Authority and James McCartney Anderson, report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, March 1994, read in full: aph.gov.au NSW Police, reward and appeal, Strike Force Euclid: police.nsw.gov.au Australian Dictionary of Biography, Juanita Joan Nielsen, by Richard Morris, volume 15 Dictionary of Sydney, on the 1983 inquest, by Darrienne Wyndham ABC News, $1 million reward announcement, 21 June 2021 ABC News and Unravel: Juanita, Michael Dulaney, 2021, for Arthur King's account in his own words SUPPORT This episode deals with the abduction and suspected murder of a woman, and with the kidnapping and threatening of a man. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. New Zealand: Need to talk? 1737. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just after midnight, an eighteen year old left a dance at the Newport Surf Life Saving Club and walked out to Barrenjoey Road to hitchhike home to Avalon. Her boyfriend watched her get into a light coloured Holden panel van. Nobody has seen Trudie Adams since. In the weeks that followed, around fifteen young women came forward to say they had been abducted at gunpoint on the same road by two men in disguise, driven into the bush and raped. Detectives had a name within months. Nobody has ever been charged, and the coroner who finally heard the case in 2011 found that the person responsible never came to police attention. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING A $250,000 reward offered by the NSW Government stands for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Trudie's suspected death. The case is held by the Unsolved Homicide Team as Strike Force Keldie, and police say they are still working strong lines of inquiry, with inquiries run in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand. Police also want to hear from any woman attacked on the northern beaches who has never reported it. The linked assaults ran from 1971 to 1978 in and around Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, against girls and young women aged 14 to 20. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000. You can remain anonymous. A NSW parliamentary inquiry into unsolved murders and long-term missing persons cases between 1965 and 2010 is sitting now, before Portfolio Committee No. 1. Submissions close 30 October 2026, through the Parliament of NSW website. A NOTE ON SOURCING Trudie Adams has never been found and no cause of death has ever been established. There is no body, no scene and no forensic material connected to her. Every forensic detail in this episode belongs to the women who survived the linked assaults. Neville Tween, named in this episode, was never charged over Trudie Adams or over any of the assaults, denied all of it, gave evidence at the 2011 inquest and died in custody in 2013. No court has made any finding against him in this case. His associate is not named here, because he has never been charged with anything. Mark Standen has never been charged with anything relating to Trudie Adams or the assaults, and no court or inquiry has found that he protected Neville Tween. The ABC put those allegations to him in 2018 and he denied them at length in writing. His own words are read in the episode. He was released on parole on 1 June 2024. The 2011 coronial finding of Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell is not published by the NSW Coroners Court, which does not publish every finding. What he found is reported here from coverage filed the day he delivered it, not from the document itself. Survivor accounts and several investigator quotes come from one body of reporting, the 2018 ABC investigation by Neil Mercer and Ruby Jones. SOURCES NSW Police, reward and appeal, Strike Force Keldie Neil Mercer, Submission 63 to the NSW unsolved murders inquiry, 24 March 2026 Parliament of NSW, Portfolio Committee No. 1, inquiry page and transcripts ABC News, Unravel: Barrenjoey Road, Neil Mercer and Ruby Jones, 2018 ABC News inquest coverage, January to April 2011 NSW State Parole Authority media release, 17 May 2024 Stab Magazine on the surf film Highway One, 1 November 2018 SUPPORT This episode deals with sexual violence and with the murder of a young woman. Australia: 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. Lifeline 13 11 14. New Zealand: Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Need to talk? 1737. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eleven days after her wedding, 26-year-old Tina Watson died on a honeymoon dive 48 nautical miles off Townsville. She was found on the sea bed in 30 metres of water with her regulator in her mouth and most of her air still in her tank. Her husband, Gabe Watson, was committed for trial for her murder by a Queensland coroner, pleaded guilty instead to manslaughter by criminal negligence, served 18 months, was deported, and was then tried for capital murder in Alabama. That trial collapsed before the defence called a witness. Two countries, eight years, one conviction, one acquittal, and no jury verdict of any kind about how she died. A NOTE ON SOURCING David Gabriel "Gabe" Watson was convicted in Queensland on his own plea of manslaughter on the basis of criminal negligence, for failing in the duty he undertook as his wife's dive buddy. He was sentenced on 5 June 2009 to four and a half years imprisonment suspended after 12 months, increased on the Attorney-General's appeal to suspension after 18 months. He was acquitted of murder in Jefferson County, Alabama, on 23 February 2012, on a judgment of acquittal granted by Circuit Judge Tommy Nail at the close of the state's case. An acquittal cannot be appealed. No court in either country has found that he intended to kill his wife, and he is entitled to the presumption of innocence. As at September 2026 there have been no further proceedings against him anywhere. The theory that he interfered with his wife's air supply was advanced publicly by Queensland investigators. It was never tested at trial, never proved and was abandoned. It was also never disproved. The Police Diving Squad's examination of her equipment found no life-threatening fault in any part of it and her cylinder still held 2,200 psi, which rules out a malfunction but is consistent with either an accident or the police theory. Two official records conflict on how she died. The coroner recorded drowning. Chesterman JA, in the Court of Appeal, found she did not drown and that the cause was asphyxiation, "for some reason wholly unexplained in the materials provided". That conflict is left standing in the episode because neither court has resolved it. The coroner's findings date Watson's rescue diver certification to 2001; the agreed statement of facts before the Court of Appeal says April 1999. The episode uses the agreed facts. Mike Ball Expeditions Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Cairns Magistrates Court on 9 May 2007 to a workplace health and safety offence and was fined $6,500 plus $1,500 in costs, for failing to follow its own procedures, which the inquest was told were significantly stricter than Queensland law required. Trial testimony comes from court reporting, reliable as to substance but not exact wording. One witness quotation is paraphrased. SOURCES Inquest into the death of Christina Mae Watson, Findings of Inquest, Coroner David Glasgow, Townsville, delivered 20 June 2008. courts.qld.gov.au R v Watson; ex parte A-G (Qld) [2009] QCA 279, 18 September 2009. Statement of David Gabriel Watson to Det Snr Const K J Gehringer, Townsville CIB, 22 October 2003. QPS Police Diving Squad, evaluation of scuba equipment, Snr Const D M E Netting, 10 September 2004. Victoria Colvin, "Plea Bargaining and Miscarriage of Justice" (2015) 34 University of Queensland Law Journal. Queensland Museum, SS Yongala online exhibition. Contemporaneous court reporting of the Alabama trial, February 2012. SUPPORT This episode deals with a sudden death and with a family's long grief. New Zealand: free call or text 1737. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14, Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before dawn on 3 October 1955, the MV Joyita left Apia on one engine, bound for Tokelau with 25 people aboard, among them a doctor on his way to operate, Tokelau's District Officer, and two children aged 3 and 11. She never arrived. Five weeks later she was found drifting north of Fiji, flooded and listing, with nobody aboard. Her life rafts, logbook, navigation gear and the captain's guns were gone. On deck was a doctor's bag holding a scalpel and blood-stained bandages. A 1956 Commission of Inquiry explained the flooding, but found the fate of the 25 "inexplicable on the evidence." So was it an accident at sea, or a crime? IN MEMORY Thomas Henry Miller, Charles R. Simpson, Tekokaa Teeweka, Aberaam Tanini, Henry McCarthy Jr, Penaia Kolio Pedro, Ihaia Kitiona Faraimo, Tagifano Latafoti Lepaio, Haipele Fihaga Himona, Ioakimi Iapeha Apete, Himeti Falaniko Mohe, Tuhaga Hila Elekana, Leota Telepu Kolo, Mohe Maota Peleti, James William Wallwork, George Kendall Williams, Takama Lapana, Tekai Lapana, Liua Noama Rosaiti Faiva, Founuku Uluola Talama, Herbert Hodgkinson, Alfred Denis Parsons, Roger Derrick Pearless, Joseph Hipili Pereira, Tomoniko Teofilo. Memorials stand at Mulinu'u Point, Apia, and on Fakaofo (2012). The Atafu Tokelau Community Group keeps a page on the families' campaign for formal declarations of death: matauala.org.nz A NOTE ON SOURCING This is a historical case. No one was ever charged and no court has found that any crime occurred. The mutiny theory involving Captain Miller and mate Chuck Simpson comes from Miller's friend Capt. S. B. Brown and the writer Robin Maugham (1962). It was never proved, and both men are presumed long dead. The 1956 Commission report (C. C. Marsack) could not be obtained for this episode; its findings are taken from reporting, including by a journalist who covered the inquiry. Criticism of the inquiry (a "suppressed" witness, the Fiji Guardian editor's unpublished report) reaches us through one family memoir and is untested. The "four tons" of missing cargo conflicts with the owners' representatives' 1955 statement that provisions were still aboard. The cash figure comes from reports at the time. The Thelma Todd link is ownership only. Status of death declarations checked 11 Sep 2026. SOURCES RNZ, "Call for coronial hearing into Tokelau's Joyita tragedy", 8 Mar 2012 Atafu Tokelau Community Group, "Joyita - Unsolved Mystery" (incl. PMN, 2022) matauala.org.nz Terry Dunleavy tribute, Savali News, 11 Mar 2012 Rosemary Francis, "A Watery Grave", Pae Koroki, Tauranga City Libraries, 2013 Julie Parsons, Westmeath Independent, 28 Oct 2020; julieparsons.ie Te Vakai (Tokelau Government), 10th ed., 2012 China Mail, 21 and 23 Nov 1955 (UP wires); Life, 12 Dec 1955; FATE, Apr 1961 ( archive.org ) Fiji Times, "Joyita - the ghost ship mystery", 5 May 2014 Martinborough Star, 8 May 2023; Fijivillage, 7 Mar 2012 David G. Wright, Joyita: Solving the Mystery (AUP, 2002); Robin Maugham, The Joyita Mystery (1962); John Harris, Without Trace (1981) SUPPORT This episode discusses sudden death and loss at sea. NZ: 1737 (call or text). AU: Lifeline 13 11 14. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a Monday morning in November 1959, Truman Capote found a three hundred word wire story deep inside the New York Times. A wheat farmer, his wife and two of their children had been found bound and shot in their farmhouse in western Kansas. Nothing had been stolen. Capote went to Kansas with Harper Lee, stayed six years, and wrote the book that made true crime respectable. This episode tells both stories at once: what happened to Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, and what happened to the facts on their way into In Cold Blood. It ends with the two daughters who survived, and the letter they sent to everyone who asked. IN MEMORY The Clutters are buried at Valley View Cemetery, Garden City. A shelter at the Kansas State 4-H camp at Rock Springs Ranch, a stained glass window at the First United Methodist Church in Garden City, and the Garden City Co-op building are dedicated to the family. The 1959 murders of Cliff, Christine, Jimmie and Debbie Walker at Osprey, Florida, remain an open investigation with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office. A NOTE ON SOURCING Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were convicted of all four murders on 29 March 1960 and hanged on 14 April 1965. The Kansas Supreme Court never determined which man fired which shot; both were guilty as principals. Hickock's signed statement blamed Smith for all four; Smith's first account had Hickock shooting Nancy and Bonnie, and he later asked to take all four himself but signed neither version. The sequence inside the house is taken from the Kansas Supreme Court's 1961 judgment only. Neither man was ever charged over the Walker murders; the 2013 DNA result was inconclusive and the lab work has since been found contaminated. We have named nobody else. Capote's account of the night is attributed to him wherever it appears. The two versions of the last words are as reported by the wire services and by Capote; Phillip Tompkins's 1966 witnesses are the source for the claim that Capote did not hear them. The 1965 wire text was reached through a secondary source. On Bonnie Clutter's health we report only what her family said in 2005 and what Capote wrote. The daughters' letter and interviews are from the Lawrence Journal-World, 2005. As of September 2026 the KBI investigative file has not been released; the Nye notebooks were published in 2019. SOURCES State v. Hickock and Smith, 188 Kan. 473 (1961): law.justia.com/cases/kansas/supreme-court/1961/42-068-0.html Hickock v. Crouse, 334 F.2d 95 (10th Cir. 1964): law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/334/95/108910/ State ex rel. Schmidt v. Nye, Kansas Court of Appeals, 2019: law.justia.com/cases/kansas/court-of-appeals/2019/118666.html New York Times, 16 Nov 1959, "Wealthy Farmer, 3 Of Family Slain" (NYT archive) George Plimpton, "The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel", NYT, 16 Jan 1966 (NYT archive) Garden City Telegram, 16 Nov 1959 and 4 Jan 1960; AP, 30 Mar 1960 and 8 Apr 1965 Kansas Memory, Hickock and Smith inmate files and execution witness list: kansasmemory.gov/item/208965 Lawrence Journal-World, "In Cold Blood: A Legacy", 3 to 5 Apr 2005 (Patrick Smith, Melissa Lee, Van Jensen) Kevin Helliker, Wall Street Journal, 8 Feb 2013, and On the Media, 15 Feb 2013 Phillip K. Tompkins, "In Cold Fact", Esquire, June 1966; Purdue oral history, 2015 Casey Cep, Furious Hours (2019); Gerald Clarke, Capote (1988); Too Brief a Treat (2004) Tampa Bay Times / CBS News, 6 Feb 2023, and ABC News, 14 Aug 2013, on the Walker case SUPPORT This episode describes the murder of a family including two children, and discusses capital punishment. If you need to talk to someone: New Zealand, call or text 1737. Australia, Lifeline 13 11 14. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In January 1976, eight year old Eloise Worledge went to bed in her family's home on Scott Street, Beaumaris. Her father looked in on her at 11:40pm. At 7:30am her younger brother and sister woke their parents to say Ella was not in her room. The flyscreen on her window had been cut and rolled back, but forensic examination found the cut was made from the inside, the dust and cobwebs undisturbed, and the scene staged. Fifty years on, Eloise has never been found, nobody has been charged, and a coroner's open finding is the only formal answer anyone has. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING On 13 January 2026, the fiftieth anniversary, Victoria Police announced a reward of up to $1 million. It is offered at the discretion of the Chief Commissioner of Police for information leading to the discovery of Eloise's remains, or the apprehension and subsequent conviction of the person or persons responsible. Police say it is currently the only reward of its kind in Victoria because it pays for the recovery of remains, not only for a conviction. The Director of Public Prosecutions may grant an informant indemnity from prosecution. The investigation remains open with the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad. Police believe Eloise was murdered. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 Confidential online report: crimestoppersvic.com.au You do not have to give your name. A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has ever been charged over Eloise Worledge's disappearance. Her parents, Lindsay and Patsy Worledge, were treated as suspects from the first days and lived under public suspicion for decades. No evidence implicating either was ever found. A 2001 cold case review found none, and Victoria Police have since told the family they have concluded the parents were not involved. Lindsay died in 2017 and Patsy in 2022, before that conclusion was conveyed. Alistair Duncan Webster, named in this episode, died in 2020. He had convictions for sexual offences in 1953, 1970 and 1972. He was never charged over Eloise Worledge, and no court or coroner has found he had any involvement. The case for examining him is ABC journalist Russell Jackson's, and Jackson states he found circumstantial evidence and coincidences but nothing definitive. Police say they cannot comment on individuals. The Board of Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School reported in February 2024 and found no connection between Eloise's disappearance and the abuse at the school. Coroner Frank Hender's 2003 finding is not published online, so we worked from contemporaneous reporting of it. The 631 page police coronial brief is not public. Some widely repeated details about that night could not be traced to a source and were left out. The argument in Part Two that a staged window is equally consistent with an intruder misdirecting the search is the host's own analysis, not any investigator's finding. SOURCES Victoria Police cold case, missing person and reward pages, police.vic.gov.au Board of Inquiry into Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Beaumaris Primary School and Certain Other Government Schools, final report, Chair Kathleen Foley SC, February 2024 Russell Jackson, ABC News, 11 and 14 January 2026 ABC News, 13 January 2026 and 7 July 2003 Australian Women's Weekly, January 2026 SUPPORT This episode deals with the abduction and presumed murder of a child, and with historical child sexual abuse. New Zealand: 1737 call or text. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Family violence 0800 456 450. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A companion to Episode 57 — the death of Jason Rigby On the evening of 14 December 2024, Jess Rigby and her husband Chris had put their youngest to bed and started a movie when the calls began. Chris's brother Jason, forty years old and second-in-charge of a resort in Nadi, had died in his staff apartment that morning — ten hours earlier, on the other side of the Pacific, with a stab wound to the chest. By the time the family were told, the scene had already been cleared and released. In this conversation Jess describes what the twenty months since have been like: three trips to Fiji, a private investigator, a missing phone, a knife nobody can account for, a toxicology form with a word crossed out - and the single document her family has been given about how Jason died. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Jason's family want to hear from anyone who worked at, or stayed at, the Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort & Spa on 14 December 2024. There were hundreds of guests and hundreds of staff on the property that day, and almost none has ever been asked what they saw. No detail is too small. Justice for Jason Rigby — on Instagram and Facebook Or message anonymously via theguiltpodcast.com and it will be passed to the family. THE BOOK WHILE THE BABY SLEPT: A Family's Fight for Justice in Fiji Over the Unsolved Death of Jason Rigby, by Jessica Rigby (Hembury Books), publishes 24 November 2026. Ebook pre-orders are open now: amazon.com/dp/B0HGL7VG7P A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in relation to Jason Rigby's death, and no court or coroner has made any finding about how he died. The Fiji Police Force's public position, stated by Assistant Commissioner Mesake Waqa in June 2025, is that they could not establish foul play and that there was no cover-up. People who were present or nearby that morning are referred to in this conversation. None of them has been charged with anything, all are entitled to the presumption of innocence, and nothing said here should be taken as alleging criminal conduct by any of them. What Jess describes of what happened inside that apartment is her family's understanding of what they have been told. It is not a matter of record, because the record has not been released to them. There were two post-mortem examinations — one in Fiji, and a second by the Queensland Coroner after Jason was repatriated — and the family has been permitted to read neither. The reason given for withholding the Queensland report is that the matter forms part of an open investigation in Fiji. No wound count, no toxicology beyond a single alcohol screen, no scene examination, no witness statement and no incident report has ever been made public. Fiji Police referred the file to a Resident Magistrate in March 2025 recommending a full inquest. As at the end of August 2026, no inquest finding is on the public record. For the full case, the timeline and the sources, listen to Episode 57. SUPPORT This episode concerns a death officially recorded as suicide, and a family who do not accept that finding. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the morning of 14 December 2024, Jason Rigby put on a suit, went to a meeting, and told colleagues in the lobby of the Fijian resort he had helped build that he would see them in half an hour. He was forty, the resort's executive assistant manager, living in staff quarters a hundred metres away. Within that half hour he was stabbed in the chest. His scene was cleared by four o'clock that afternoon — before his family in Australia had been told he was dead. Twenty months later they have obtained exactly one document about how he died, and somebody had already crossed a word out of it. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Jason's family want to hear from anyone who worked at, or stayed at, the Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort & Spa on 14 December 2024. There were hundreds of guests and hundreds of staff on the property that day, and almost none has ever been asked what they saw. No detail is too small. LINKS Justice for Jason Rigby — on Instagram and Facebook Or message anonymously via theguiltpodcast.com and it will be passed to the family. Jessica Rigby's account of the case, WHILE THE BABY SLEPT: A Family's Fight for Justice in Fiji Over the Unsolved Death of Jason Rigby (Hembury Books), publishes 24 November 2026. Ebook pre-orders are open now: amazon.com/dp/B0HGL7VG7P A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in relation to Jason Rigby's death, and no court or coroner has made any finding about how he died. The Fiji Police Force's public position, stated by Assistant Commissioner Mesake Waqa in June 2025, is that they could not establish foul play and that there was no cover-up. Everyone who was near Jason that morning is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and nothing in this episode should be taken as suggesting otherwise. None of them is named in this episode. Almost nothing about this death has been released. There were two post-mortem examinations — one in Fiji, one by the Queensland Coroner after Jason was repatriated — and his family has been permitted to read neither. The reason given for withholding the Queensland report is that the matter forms part of an open investigation in Fiji. No wound count, no toxicology beyond a single alcohol screen, no scene examination and no witness statement has been made public. Accounts of what happened inside the flat come from Jason's family, and are their understanding of what they have been told rather than established fact. The published record on this case amounts to three things: the Fijian reporting of December 2024, the 60 Minutes broadcast of June 2025 and the police response to it, and Mamamia's interview with Jess Rigby in June 2026. The rest comes from the family. Fiji Police referred the file to a Resident Magistrate in March 2025 recommending a full inquest. As at the end of August 2026, no inquest finding is on the public record. SOURCES The Fiji Times, 16 Dec 2024 — the resort's statement that there was no criminal investigation FBC News, 17 Dec 2024 — ACP Mesake Waqa's first statement fijivillage / FBC News, 22–23 Jun 2025 — "We could not establish any foul play... there is no cover up" 60 Minutes Australia, "Murder in Paradise", 22 Jun 2025 Mamamia, Gemma Bath, 30 Jun 2026 True Crime Conversations (Mamamia) — "A Families' Fight For Answers After A Death In Paradise" Interview with Jess Rigby, 26 Aug 2026 SUPPORT This episode concerns a death officially recorded as suicide. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elly Rose Warren was twenty years old, three days from flying home, when she was found dead beside a toilet block at Tofo Beach in Mozambique on 9 November 2016. The Mozambican autopsy recorded a violent death — a homicide — with sand obstructing her airways. The Australian autopsy left the cause undetermined. Nearly ten years later nobody has been charged, and almost everything now known about how Elly died was found by her father. In this conversation Paul Warren describes what he found: a crime scene he believes was altered before investigators arrived, a photograph that existed for two years before his family was shown it, clothing that never came home, and an Australian agency he says did not go to Mozambique officially until seven years after his daughter died. ELLY WARREN — THE TRUE FACTS Paul has published his entire ten-year investigation, including scanned primary documents, at ellywarren.net. If you take one thing from this episode, take that. THE ELLY WARREN PROTOCOL Paul's proposed reform for what should happen when an Australian dies overseas in suspicious circumstances — putting the coroner in control from the start, and using state homicide expertise rather than leaving families to investigate for themselves. It is set out on his website. It has not been taken up. THE BOOK HUNTING ELLY'S KILLER: A father's relentless pursuit of justice, by Paul Warren (Simon & Schuster Australia, ISBN 9781761636486). Available in print, ebook and audiobook. https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Hunting-Ellys-Killer/Paul-Warren/9781761636486 Kindle: amazon.com.au/dp/B0GR1JY5H4 Ebook ISBN 9781761636493 — also at Booktopia, Dymocks, Readings, QBD and Mighty Ape in New Zealand. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING If you were at Tofo Beach in November 2016, or know anything about what happened there, you can reach us through theguiltpodcast.com — anonymously if you prefer. Anything concerning Elly is passed to Paul directly. A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in connection with Elly Warren's death. The Victorian coronial inquest was held in 2023. Judge John Cain delivered his findings on 15 December 2023: the cause of death was aspiration of a large amount of sand; he could not determine how the sand came to be there; he could not rule on whether the death was a homicide; he found it possible that a person or people caused or contributed to her death; he could not say whether she died where she was found or was moved there; and he could not determine whether she had been sexually assaulted, though he accepted it was possible. Three post-mortem examinations reached different conclusions — in Mozambique, in South Africa and in Melbourne — and all three found sand in her airways. The Melbourne finding of "undetermined" was later amended following evidence at the inquest. Paul is severely critical of the Australian Federal Police, the Mozambican police and the Victorian coronial process. Those criticisms are his, they are strongly held, and the documents he relies on are published on his website for you to read and weigh. Nothing in this episode should be taken as alleging criminal conduct by any identified person. SOURCES ellywarren.net — Paul Warren's published investigation and primary documents Coroners Court of Victoria — inquest into the death of Elly Rose Warren, findings delivered 15 December 2023 ABC News, 22 August 2023 and 15 December 2023 — inquest and findings reporting Hunting Elly's Killer, Paul Warren (Simon & Schuster Australia) Interview with Paul Warren, recorded 25 August 2026 SUPPORT This episode concerns the unexplained death of a young woman overseas, and refers to the possibility of sexual assault. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. Hosted by Ryan Wolf. brevityplus.com While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.