Phoebe's Fall

Phoebe's Fall

A major investigation by The Age newsroom in Melbourne, Australia, into the death of Phoebe Handsjuk, who was found at the bottom of a garbage chute in a luxury apartment building.

Episodes

September 29, 2025 4 mins

For decades, families in Australia and overseas, have been accused of one of the worst crimes imaginable. Diagnosing Murder is an investigative podcast about parents who've had their children taken away, sat in the dock and even done time in prison. All for something they insist they didn't do – shake their baby. Can we trust the science behind shaken baby syndrome? Or are innocent people being locked up for a crime they neve...

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On Father’s Day, 2005, Robert Farquharson crashed his car into a dam. He survived, but his three children who were in the car with him didn’t. At first it seemed like a tragic accident. But quickly, it turned into a murder investigation.

 

For exclusive content and additional reporting on the case, available to subscribers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, visit theage.com.au/podcast/trialbywater or smh.com...

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June 22, 2018 6 mins
Victorian Government announces reforms to Coroner's Act and Phobe's grandfather Lorne responds.
 

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December 15, 2016 9 mins

The Victorian Government has announced a review of the Coroner's Act amid widespread public concern about the inquest into Phoebe Handsjuk's garbage chute death.

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October 27, 2016 43 mins

We dissect the coroner's finding in Phoebe's case, raising serious questions about his conclusion and the methods he used to reach it. We examine the consequences of challenging a poor finding. And we reveal the Facebook post that prompted this podcast.

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Seven months after Phoebe Handsjuk died, forensic scientists found a piece of paper in the pocket of the jeans she was wearing when she died. Whose number was it? And what did it mean?

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October 20, 2016 31 mins

Phoebe is remembered by her friends and family. We chronicle the competing memorials and funerals. And we journey to the shores of her Viking farewell.

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October 18, 2016 4 mins

We explore the difficulties of establishing Phoebe's time of death, and a debate between police and doctors over the value of trying to estimate when somebody has died.

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October 13, 2016 34 mins

We explore Phoebe's tumultuous last week and examine what she and her partner, Ant Hampel, did on her final day. Then we put the blowtorch to failings and omissions in the police investigation following her death, and the early conclusion that it was a suicide.

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October 10, 2016 3 mins

Our investigative journalists Richard Baker and Michael Bachelard report back on the tip-offs we've received and the political developments triggered by Phoebe's Fall since we launched.

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October 6, 2016 29 mins

Examines the state of Phoebe's mind and the relationship that dominated her life at the time of her death. We find evidence that she was planning to leave her partner, Ant Hampel. And we play audio of a secret recording made by Phoebe's mother of Ant's reaction to her death.

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September 28, 2016 26 mins

We walk through the final hours of Phoebe Handsjuk's life, challenge the plausibility of the coroner's findings, and examine the gruesome mechanics of her death in a chilling re-enactment. We also hear from a leading forensic pathologist whom we commissioned to review the evidence.

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September 22, 2016 24 mins

Starts with the mysterious and gruesome death of 24yo Phoebe Handsjuk and the open possibilities that it was either murder, suicide or a tragic accident. Then it steps back to hear from Phoebe herself and then her friends and family describe her many traits; her beauty, her art, her physical strength, her appetite for drugs and booze, her obsessions with forbidden men.

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A major investigation by The Age newsroom in Melbourne, Australia, into the death of Phoebe Handsjuk, who was found at the bottom of a garbage chute in a luxury apartment building.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A new podcast series from The Age, Melbourne, Australia.

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