Australian Crime Stories

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of child murder.  In 1892, Sydney was a city balancing progress and poverty. Thanks to social stigma and economic hardship, unwanted pregnancies were growing and as a result “baby farming” began to quietly thrive in backstreets and rented terraces. When workmen uncovered the tiny remains of infants buried beneath a particular house in Macdonaldtown, the discovery unravelled a web of deceit that stretched across the city, exposing a hidden trade built on desperation and betrayal.

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of child sexual assault and murder.  Mr Cruel has been keeping Melbourne’s North-East suburbs in a tight grip of fear. This is now his third confirmed home invasion and second kidnaping, with no sign of his attacks slowing. His awareness of forensics makes the police investigation near impossible, but with building pressure from the public, Victoria Police will go on to form one of the largest manhunt's in Australia's history.

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of child sexual assault.  Between 1987 and the early 1990s, Melbourne’s suburbs experienced a series of highly organised and disturbing home invasions. The intruder would tie up the parents, cut the phone lines, and demand money, but at the centre of each attack was the sexual assault of a young daughter. Police investigations quickly linked the crimes to a single, elusive perpetrator; whose planning, control, and forensic awareness set him apart from typical offenders. The media would refer to him as, Mr Cruel.

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of violence against women. In 1942, wartime Melbourne lived under the dim, uneasy glow of the brownout; a city cloaked in half-darkness to hide from Japanese bombers. By day it bustled with soldiers, trams, and factory workers, but by night the familiar streets turned dark and silent. Within the shadows, crime escalated with one predator in particular. Three women were found strangled to death within days of each other. What was implemented for safety quickly became the advantage of a killer.

In April 1935, a tiger shark at Sydney’s Coogee Aquarium regurgitated a human arm, setting in motion one of Australia’s most bizarre crimes. The case quickly grew into a tangled investigation, involving a crime underworld, a high-speed chase and the murder of a key witness. The story often feels stranger than fiction, yet it endures as a landmark case in Sydney’s history.

Warning: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence, child murder and domestic violence In March 2004, Anna Kemp and her toddler daughter, Gracie, vanished from their home in Mornington, Victoria. The case began as a simple missing persons report assigned to Detective Narelle Fraser but would quickly became her most haunting case. Over the weeks that followed, the search revealed a trail of strange messages, hidden evidence, and a mystery that would shock the community.

The Argyle Diamond Mine - located in the remote East Kimberley region of Western Australia - was producing more than a third of the world’s diamonds by volume. The majority of these diamonds were small and brown-toned, but Argyle’s global reputation was built on its rare pink diamonds; so when they began surfacing in places they were never meant to be, it became Richard Corfield’s responsibility to sleuth the truth. But ow many diamonds will be stolen in the meantime?

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, drug use, torture and mutilation. Only meters from his home, 15 year old Richard Kelvin is hastily abducted by several people. Being the son of a local news presenter, the media is quickly overrun by the story, and with it, police are pressured to make serious progress with their investigation. They close in on an ongoing suspect, Bevan von Einem, but will the other members of the sadistic network known as “the Family” be held accountable?

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault, child sexual abuse, drug use, torture and mutilation. The murders in Adelaide didn’t stop with Alan Barnes and Neil Muir. Two more boys - 14 year old Peter Stogneff and 18 year old Mark Langley — would vanish under eerily familiar circumstances. As the investigation unfolds, it starts to become alarmingly clear; these crimes weren’t committed by a sole perpetrator and they aren’t slowing down. Whoever these people were, they held a chilling confidence in committing such heinous crimes.

Warning: This episode contains themes of pedophilia, sexual assault and mutilation. In Adelaide, following the notorious murder of criminal lawyer Derrance Stevenson, dubbed “body in the freezer”, a series of even more horrific murders would occur. This time the victims were young boys and men - drugged, abused, killed, mutilated and discarded. A trail left behind by an underground world of sadism, pedophilia, pornography and exploitation on Adelaide’s most vulnerable. Despite the unrelenting efforts to keep this story hidden, it’s one that continues begging to be heard.

In June 1979, the quiet suburb of Parkside was rocked by a chilling discovery—a prominent barrister found dead, concealed inside a freezer in his own home. The case that followed gripped South Australia, weaving together a tangled web of secrets, complex relationships, and shadowy figures. What seemed at first like a straightforward murder quickly unraveled into a mystery filled with unanswered questions and disputed evidence, and a young man’s life forever changed. This is the story behind one of the state’s most infamous murder trials.

On a cool spring night in September 2012, a young woman named Jill Meagher vanished from the streets of Brunswick, just minutes from her home. In a city known for its safety and vibrant culture, her disappearance struck a nerve. As days passed with no sign of her, the public watched in growing horror. What began as a missing persons case soon spiralled into a national reckoning—exposing deep failures in the justice system, igniting outrage, and leaving a community forever changed.

In April 2002, a well-known Melbourne couple vanished without a trace after a quiet family dinner in the affluent suburb of Glen Iris. Their disappearance would spark a major police investigation, drawing in detectives, media, and a stunned public. What began as a missing persons case soon quickly revealed itself to be a double homicide.

On the 1st of January, 1915, in the remote mining town of Broken Hill, New South Wales, a New Year’s Day picnic train was ambushed by two armed men. The attackers opened fire without warning, killing four civilians and wounding at least seven others. The men were later pursued and shot dead by police and civilian riflemen.

Katherine Knight is one of the most chilling figures in Australian criminal history, often mentioned in the same breath as Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer. A former abattoir worker from rural New South Wales, she appeared to be just another volatile woman with a troubled past — until one night in 2000, when her unspeakable actions stunned the nation. Her crime wasn’t defined by the number of victims, but by the sheer brutality and grotesque detail.

Before the infamous Port Arthur Massacre, an often forgotten massacre took place in the quiet suburb of Strathfield Sydney on August 17, 1991. In just minutes, Wade Frankum killed seven people and injured six others before taking his own life. The Strathfield Massacre stunned Australia and became a pivotal moment that helped spark national conversations about gun control, mental health and public safety.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are warned that this story details the accounts and names of deceased persons.   Since the fateful day in 1986 when Yindjibarndi boy, John Pat, died in police custody, the 28th of September has been known as John Pat day in Australia. It is a constant reminder of the oppression and injustice that the indigenous people continue to face. His death launched the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and exposed the fractured relationship between the justice system and First Nations people. To this day, no one has ever been found guilty of an Indigenous death in custody in Australia.

Frederick Deeming is not only Australia’s most notorious criminal of the 19th century, but also one of the world’s first ever recorded serial killers. With over 35 aliases, the globetrotting conman has left a hazy trail of crimes that may never fully be realised, but the most pressing question continues to persist; was Frederick Deeming Jack the Ripper?

The Perth suburbs of 1986 were thrown into fear when multiple young women suddenly started to go missing. Too late for several victims but thanks to one, police eventually discovered the “house of horrors” where sadistic couple Catherine and David Birnie would rape, torture and ultimately, murder.