Casefile True Crime

*** Content warnings: Crimes against children ***

In July 1997, residents of Moe, Victoria were left reeling after their town was put on the map for all the wrong reasons. A 14-month-old boy named Jaidyn Leskie had gone missing under the most bizarre of circumstances, prompting a media circus. 

The boyfriend of Jaidyn’s mother, 28-year-old Greg Domaszewicz, immediately came under police suspicion as he had been loo...

New Hampshire couple Pamela and Gregory Smart had only recently married when their lives took a shocking turn. Gregory was murdered in their home in what appeared to be a burglary gone wrong. As Pamela navigated life in the public eye as a newly grieving widow, an anonymous phone call to police unraveled a complex web of secrets that no one could predict.

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Narration – Anonymous Host

Research & writing – Mill...

*** Content warnings: Child victim, child sexual assault ***

On April 22 2003, Queensland police arrived at a suburban home in Brisbane’s Bridgeman Downs to find a confronting scene. Three siblings, Neelma, Kunal and Sidhi Singh, had been killed while their parents were overseas, their bodies left in a spa bath with the taps running. Detectives quickly honed in on Neelma’s ex-boyfriend, Max Sica, but according to Max, th...

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, racism ***

After college student Alice Sebold was violently raped in 1981, a 21-year-old man named Tony Broadwater was promptly arrested and subsequently convicted of the crime. Alice later wrote a powerful memoir about her ordeal, called Lucky, which became a bestseller. But Alice’s book would reveal more than anyone could have realised…

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Narration – Anonymous Host

Re...

In 2000, the Wallace family is shattered when patriarch Michael dies of apparent heart disease. Years later, his widow Stacey remarries David Castor. Tragedy strikes again when David is found dead in a pool of his own vomit, apparently the result of suicide. But as inconsistencies begin to surface and investigators take a closer look, attention turns to Stacey herself…

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Narration – Anonymous Host

Research &...

*** Content warnings: Violence against women, femicide ***

When 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley went missing while walking her dog, her loved ones quickly launched a search at Wangetti Beach near Cairns, where she was last seen. In the early morning hours of October 22 2018, Toyah’s father Troy Cordingley made a devastating discovery: his daughter had been murdered and buried in the sand, at a place where she’d always felt ...

Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases.

When 35-year-old Maria Cruz failed to show up for work on April 14 2003, her colleagues immediately knew something was wrong. A visit to her Manhattan apartment revealed no signs of a struggle and no indication of where she might have gone.

As investigators retraced her movements from the day before, they ...

Casefile Revisited features newly re-recorded versions of classic episodes, revisiting the stories with enhanced production, fresh narration, and updated research where possible.

When Mosman Park jewellery store owner Pamela Lawrence was late to return home from work on May 23 1994, her husband Peter went to check if everything was okay. There, he found Pamela clinging to life with serious head injuries, which she later succumbe...

Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases.

When 55-year-old Greg Fleniken was found dead inside his hotel room in Beaumont, Texas, nothing about the scene appeared suspicious. There were no signs of forced entry, no obvious wounds, and no indication of a struggle. At first, it seemed Greg had died suddenly from natural causes.

But an autopsy reveal...

*** Content warnings: Child abuse, crimes against children, sexual assault ***

When 10-year-old Zahra Baker was reported missing by her father and stepmum in Hickory, North Carolina, one Saturday afternoon in 2010, it sparked the largest missing persons investigation in the city's history. Police worked around the clock, hoping for a miracle, but people close to the family said they'd been expecting something like this to happen for...

*** Content warnings: Child abduction ***

When 13-year-old Megumi Yokota failed to return home from her regular badminton practice on November 15 1977, her parents immediately raised the alarm.

The police in Niigata, Japan, conducted one of the city’s largest ever investigations, but no trace of Megumi was ever found. Two decades later, the case took a shocking turn that would rock the entire nation of Japan and have geopol...

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, drug use, suicide, homophobia ***

Over a 16-month period between 2014 and 2015, four young men—Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor—each died under unusual circumstances in the East London suburb of Barking.

While the police initially palmed the deaths off as isolated incidents, the families of the four men believed something suspicious was at play...

In the tense weeks following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, a new and invisible threat emerged across the United States. Letters laced with weaponised anthrax began arriving through the mail, infecting ordinary people and spreading fear nationwide.

As the possibility of bioterrorism gripped the country, a massive federal investigation codenamed Amerithrax was launched to uncover who was behind the attacks…

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*** Content warnings: Child victims, sexual assault ***

On February 28 1976, the suburban community of Hales Corners, Wisconsin, was rocked when the body of missing schoolboy, 14-year-old John Zera, was discovered in a local park. The teenager hadn’t been seen for over a week, having gone missing in the middle of the school day without so much as a word.

Over the next few years, the investigation into John’s brutal mu...

When 52-year-old Julia Wallace was found brutally murdered in her Liverpool home in 1931, no one could have anticipated the complex and challenging investigation that would follow, centring on her husband, William, and a mysterious figure known only as R. M. Qualtrough.

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Narration – Anonymous Host

Research & writing – Milly Raso

Production & music – Mike Migas

Audio editing – Anthony Telfer

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*** Content warning: Child sexual abuse ***

Late in 1991, a child said something strange to his mother: ‘I don’t like Peter’s black penis.’ Believing this was an indication that her son was being abused by Peter Ellis, a 33-year-old employee at the Christchurch Civic Creche her son attended, the concerned mother quickly filed a report. The case would soon snowball into one of New Zealand’s biggest ...

*** Content warning: Sexual assault ***

When 22-year-old aspiring journalist Elisabeth Membrey failed to answer her phone on December 7 1994, her loved ones knew something was wrong. A visit to her Ringwood East unit confirmed their suspicions when blood stains were found on the carpet, but Elisabeth herself was nowhere to be seen. 

With Elisabeth’s disappearance declared to be a homicide, her parents, Roger and J...

Casefile Revisited features newly re-recorded versions of classic episodes, revisiting the stories with enhanced production, fresh narration, and updated research where possible.

*** Content warnings: Gun violence ***

When Larry Phillips Junior and Emil Mătăsăreanu entered the North Hollywood branch of the Bank of America on February 28 1997, no one could have predicted the chaos that was about to ensue. What followed was 44 minu...

Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases.

On Friday, August 20 2010, officers from the Holmes County Sheriff's Department were called to Vortex Spring, a commercially operated dive park just outside the Florida town of Ponce de Leon. A 30-year-old scuba diver from Tennessee by the name of Ben McDaniel had failed to resurface after diving into the nar...