Criminology Files

In October 1977, one of Australia's most celebrated designers — Florence Broadhurst, the woman behind some of the country's most iconic wallpaper — was found beaten to death in her own Paddington warehouse. The front door had been open all night. There was no sign of forced entry, no struggle... and two clean teacups sitting in the kitchen. Forty-seven years later, no one has ever been cha...

The Killer Cadets They were teenagers with extraordinary futures ahead of them. David Graham was headed for the U.S. Air Force Academy. Diane Zamora was bound for the U.S. Naval Academy. They were young, ambitious, admired — and engaged to be married. Then came a lie. In 1995, sixteen-year-old Adrianne Jones was found murdered in a field outside Grand Prairie, Texas. She had been beaten and shot,...

In 1995, two honor students at the top of their class — bound for the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy — committed a murder that shocked Texas. 16-year-old Adrianne Jones was found dead in a field outside Fort Worth. It would take almost a year, a jealous confession, and a betrayal between two people who claimed to love each other more than anything, to unravel what really happened that nig...

The Fourth World: When Fantasy Became Reality In 1954, two teenage girls in a quiet New Zealand suburb built a private universe together — an imaginary kingdom so vivid it began to eclipse the real world around them. Then one of their mothers was found dead on a forest path, killed with a brick wrapped in a stocking. This is the story of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme: two brilliant, isolated sch...

THE GHOST OF WAKEHURST PARKWAY The Lady Who Vanished on Sydney’s Haunted Road There are roads we drive every day without ever thinking about the stories attached to them. But after dark, Wakehurst Parkway becomes the setting for one of Sydney’s most enduring urban legends. For decades, stories have circulated about a mysterious woman appearing along the dark, winding road through Sydney’s northern...

For decades, people in Sydney's west have shared the story of Sarah Simpson—a mysterious young woman whose name has become synonymous with one of Australia's best-known urban legends. But who was Sarah Simpson? Was she a real person whose life became distorted through generations of storytelling, or is the legend entirely a work of folklore? In this 45–60 minute investigative documentary,...

For decades, people in Sydney's west have shared the story of Sarah Simpson—a mysterious young woman whose name has become synonymous with one of Australia's best-known urban legends. But who was Sarah Simpson? Was she a real person whose life became distorted through generations of storytelling, or is the legend entirely a work of folklore? In this 45–60 minute investigative documentary, WHY FILE...

On a warm spring evening in 1995, a young woman walked into one of Norway's most prestigious hotels and checked into Room 2805. She called herself Jennifer Fairgate. Three days later, she was dead. The name she'd signed on the registration card wasn't real. The address she gave didn't exist. The labels had been cut from every piece of clothing she owned, and no one has ever come fo...

Podcast Description On a warm summer day in January 1965, two fifteen-year-old best friends, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock , disappeared after walking across the sand dunes of Wanda Beach in Sydney's south. The following morning, their bodies were discovered, shocking the nation and triggering what became the largest murder investigation in Australian history. Despite thousands of in...

The Man Who Never Existed: Peter Bergmann 2009, a man using the name Peter Bergmann arrived in the coastal town of Sligo, Ireland. He checked into a hotel, paid in cash, and gave false details for every piece of information requested. Over the next few days, he was seen moving quietly through the town—discarding items, avoiding contact, and seemingly preparing for something no one could understand...

In one of Australia's strangest unsolved mysteries, a tiger shark caught off Sydney's coast vomited a human arm onto the deck of an aquarium exhibition. What initially seemed like a bizarre marine curiosity quickly spiralled into a murder investigation involving insurance fraud, criminal gangs, blackmail, and a victim whose body was never found. How did a severed arm become the key piece of eviden...

In 1970, the burned body of an unidentified woman was found in Norway's remote Isdalen Valley. She carried multiple aliases, travelled across Europe, and left behind a trail of mystery that remains unsolved more than fifty years later. In this three-part true crime documentary, we explore the discovery, the investigation, the theories, and the modern forensic efforts to uncover the identity of the...

On the morning of December 1, 1948, an unidentified man was found dead on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, South Australia. He carried no identification. Every label had been removed from his clothing. Hidden in a secret pocket was a tiny scrap of paper bearing two mysterious words: "Tamam Shud" — Persian for "ended" or "finished." What followed became one of the most baff...

On New Year's Day 1963, the bodies of two respected Sydney scientists, Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Margaret Chandler, were discovered on the banks of the Lane Cove River. Neither appeared to have suffered any obvious injuries, yet both were dead under circumstances so strange that police, forensic experts, and the public were left searching for answers. What began as a suspected double murder quickly ev...

After nearly ten years of dead ends, police finally announce a breakthrough in Australia's most famous unidentified murder case. The Pyjama Girl has a name. Linda Agostini. And her husband, Antonio Agostini, has confessed. For the public, the mystery appears solved. Newspapers declare the case closed. A husband has admitted responsibility, and one of the nation's most notorious investigations seem...

In September 1934, a gruesome discovery beside a lonely road near Albury would spark one of Australia's most infamous criminal mysteries. A young woman is found partially burned, shot in the neck, and dressed in distinctive yellow silk pyjamas embroidered with a dragon motif. Police have no name, no suspect, and no obvious clues. As the investigation stalls, authorities make a shocking decision: p...