Dead Bodies Podcast

Funerals take many forms, but in Taiwan it’s next level, with strippers being called in to send dead bodies off with a thrill. In 1935 a shark at the Coogee Aquarium in Sydney vomited up a human arm, which triggered the bizarre case of the murder of former boxer Jimmy Smith. Sharnelle finally reveals where she would hide a dead body.

Singer songwriter Gram Parsons was loved by his friends in the music industry. But when he died of a drug overdose in September 1973 at Joshua Tree in California, their efforts to carry out his wishes for his dead body went horribly wrong. We look at what happens to the bodies of people who die on an aeroplane.

Sharnelle, who doesn’t believe in ghosts - has a bizarre night in a Florida hotel room while covering Hurricane Michael. Dee Dee looks into the disappearance of Ahmet Hagune in Cyprus in 1974, and the fig tree growing out of a cave that led to the discovery of his body.

On November 18, 1978, more than 900 devotees of cult leader Jim Jones died at The Peoples Temple compound in Guyana. On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the horror, we look back at what happened, and the extraordinarily gruesome task that faced those tasked with repatriating the dead. And we share some feedback on unusual burial customs.

Could you sleep with a dead body? A number of people have done that without actually realising. Dee Dee looks at a number of cases where dead bodies have been found under motel beds. Sharnelle is concerned that she may have inadvertently helped someone commit a crime. We talk to Caitie who worked as a nursing assistant and saw her first dead body when she was 19. She sat with a man as he died, but...

Sharnelle tells the story of Sofina Nikat, a depressed woman who killed her baby at a park in Melbourne's north-east because she thought her daughter was "possessed". With so many Dead Bodies listeners guessing that Sharnelle’s hiding spot for a dead body would be a drain, Dee Dee remembers a 6 year old girl named Sheree Beasley whose body was found in a drain on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in...

Sharnelle looks at the families of people who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, and the importance of being reunited with the remains of their loved ones. Some are still waiting today, 17 years after the Twin Towers fell. Dee Dee looks at one of Australia’s worst mass murders that became known as the bodies in the barrels. John Bunting, Robert Wagner, and James Vlassakis killed 1...

Sharnelle has the disturbing story of a woman who woke up in refrigerated storage in the morgue. Can you bury a body in your backyard? Dee Dee looks whether a do-it-yourself burial is legal, and where you’re allowed to sprinkle cremated remains of your loved ones . Photographer Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene in New York in the 1930’s and 40’s just as the cops did was so uncanny...

Thousands of people have been killed as a result of the Mexican drug wars, and at least 300 bodies were disposed of by a man named Santiago Meza Lopez who was known as The Stewmaker. Sharnelle looks at people who have had quirky requests for their own burials, and reveals her breakdown after reporting on the murder trial of Adrian Bayley, who killed Jill Meagher in Brunswick in 2012. Bassmah and S...

Jean Stevens didn’t want to live without her late husband and her twin, so she didn’t. Sharnelle looks at how she kept their bodies in her house. Dee Dee talks about the lucrative body snatching trade in the early 1800’s, and the infamous pair Burke and Hare who killed 16 people to sell their bodies to a medical school for dissection. We hear from a listener who had a close call with a cannibal.

Emmett Till was just 14 years old in 1955 when his mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in Tennessee. His mother insisted on his brutalised body being shown in an open casket, to expose the evil of his racially-motivated murder, which played a crucial role in improving the human rights of African Americans. Dee Dee tells the story of “The Boy Who Whistled”. Sharnelle looks at some...

Sharnelle looks at German photographer Walter Schels who was terrified of death, but conquered his fear by taking a series of portraits of people before and on the day they died. Dee Dee cover the discovering in 1954 of a naked, battered body of a woman, found laying against rocks in Boulder, Colorado. It was more than 50 years before the woman known as Boulder Jane Doe was formally identified. An...

We asked “Have you ever seen a dead body?”, and it seems many people have. In this episode Sharnelle and Dee Dee share stories of dead bodies from listeners, including the fascinating Memento Mori: photographs of the dead that were taken in Victorian days. The girls talks to certified dog trainer Craig Murray, who specialises in handling cadaver dogs that search for dead bodies. He talks about his...

Funerals are distressing enough, and Sharnelle has found one that left mourners distressed when the body came out of the coffin. Dee Dee looks at Leonarda Cianciulli who was known as the Correggio soap-maker. She boiled the bodies of her victims to make soap, and in some cases, biscuits. Channel Seven reporter Michael Scanlan shares the moving story of his moment with death, that of his beloved si...

Dee Dee thinks she has finally worked out where Sharnelle would hide a dead body. And she looks into the gruesome legend of Sweeney Todd. Sharnelle discusses juries and the horrors that they have to view during a murder trial. The girls speak to Professor Andrew Heggie, who says the first time he saw a dead body, there was a whole room full of them.

Santa Claus has given everyone the wrong impression, that you can slide down a chimney. But you’re more likely to get stuck. In this episode Dee Dee looks at a number of dead bodies found in chimneys, including Robert Thompson, found 28 years after he went missing. Sharnelle confesses to taking sneaky peeks at gruesome crime scene photos in the newsroom.

Most of us bury our dead, but not Carl Tanzler. Dee Dee tells us about this eccentric man who kept the body of the love of his life in his home for years. Sharnelle has a fun fact about shoes found at crime scenes. The girls talk to crime scene cleaner Peter Guerin.

Sharnelle and Dee Dee talk to a man, who has seen not one but three dead bodies. The most interesting is without a doubt the body of his friend Theresa Verity Crowe who was murdered in a loft in Prahan, Melbourne in 1980. Hugo was the last person to see the victim before she was murdered and one of the first people to find her body. He helped detectives for years until they found his friend’s murd...

Sharnelle tells the story of the glamorous event that went ahead despite a dead body on the red carpet, and she serves up a slice of baby pizza. Dee Dee tells the shocking story of dismembered bodies hidden in a tree. The girls discuss “Where would you hide a dead body?”

Dee Dee tells the story of the little girl found under the floor of a house being renovated in San Francisco in 2016. Sharnelle talks about a headless body found on the train tracks. The girls talk to forensic counsellor John Merrick, author of Stories From The Morgue

Sharnelle has been looking through Victorian-era newspapers, where the bodies of babies and children were found in the classifieds. Dee Dee recalls a severed penis found at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, the hunt for the body that went with it, and the gruesome story that unfolded. The girls talk to Tony Tardio who was traumatised as a young man when he saw a dead body on the train tracks.

Dee Dee tells the story of one of the most famous dead body photos of all time: Evelyn McHale, who jumped from the Empire State Building. Sharnelle tells of the bloody ending to her search for a missing body, and looks at the legendary crime scene photographer Weegee. The girls speak to journalist Brett McLeod who hadn’t seen a dead body well into his adult life. And then he was sent to cover the...

TV crime and court reporter Sharnelle Vella has seen more dead bodies than she can count. Veteran radio host Dee Dee Dunleavy has never seen one. In this introduction to Series One of Dead Bodies, Sharnelle tells of the first time she saw a dead body at a tea plantation when she was just a child. Their special guest Peter “Grubby” Stubbs tells the story of what he was forced to do with a dead body...

Have you ever seen a dead body? People find dead bodies everywhere, under floorboards, inside chimneys, and in their homes. They’re at crime scenes, disaster scenes and in morgues. There have been dead bodies on the red carpet, in cannibals’ dens, and even advertised in the classifieds. In this series, experienced crime and court reporter Sharnelle Vella, and veteran radio host Dee Dee Dunleavy lo...