Suburban Legends

11 July 1990. Kananook Train Station, Seaford, Victoria. At 10:20PM Maria Babacala got off the train and made her way off the platform, crossing the overpass to head out of the station. As the clacking of the train departing for Frankston echoed in the night sky, things again fell silent and she shuffled towards her destination. But that silence was soon disturbed by the sound of a firm female voi...

18, July 1998. The Green Papaya Restaurant, Surrey Hills, Victoria. A dozen staff were closing up for the night in the safe suburban upper class neighbourhood in Melbourne’s East. Just as the restaurant owner, Leon Dong, had his staff clear the last plate of devoured lemon chicken from the tables, a pair of masked armed robbers stormed into the venue. The older of the two bandits, wearing a Richar...

19 September 1994. Hallam, Victoria Constable Jason Bryant and Sergeant Allan Beckwith were patrolling north along Hallam Road, when they spotted a stolen Nissan Bluebird with stolen registration plates backing out of Bowens Timber and Hardware. Neither of the officers knew the car or plates were stolen at that moment, but the driver was hasty to be on their way, so the police pulled over and let...

He said he didn’t want to hurt her, but she saw the 10 inch butcher’s knife in his hand. Mrs G was too scared to say anything and worried about her daughter in the room nearby. The intruder said, ‘I just want to make love to you.’ Then he kissed her on the neck and added, ‘I’ve been watching you. Have you been seeing me?’ She said no. Then he pulled her shirt down and told her to undress, reassuri...

6th of December, 1980, around 2pm. Graeme Brenchley and Tom Looby were enjoying a day of fox hunting near an old sand quarry. This area was in Tynong North, around Brew Road. The men had permission to hunt there. For Graeme and Tom to be able to hunt any foxes, they first had to be lured out from safety, and into the area where they were. To do this, the men dumped lamb offal in the nearby scrubla...

On Thursday 2 June 2011, 13 year old Siriyakorn Siriboon, or Bung as she’s commonly known, had breakfast with her Mum, Vannida, and her older sister, Pang, before she left her home in Boronia, Victoria, to walk to school, as she did every weekday. Bung was wearing her blue and white checked school uniform and her dark blue zip-front school jacket and carrying a backpack. She was seen by a neighbou...

On April 24, 2018, as many of us remember well, Joseph DeAngelo the alleged Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker was apprehended for a spate of brutal rapes and murders committed throughout California in the mid 1970’s to mid 1980’s. While the sheer number of victims this offender amassed has never and hopefully will never have an Australian parallel, the unnerving similarit...

14th March 2003, Port of Yantai, China Crew members loaded 5000 tonnes of sand onto the Pong Su. All 30 of the Korean crew members then set sail for Jae Mae Do, North Korea, where they arrived the following day. Here, more parcels were loaded onto the ocean freighter by two additional crew members who would join the ship’s voyage thereafter. One of these men was named Ta Song Wong... Join Shaun an...

On the 19th of March 2015, Raymond and Jennie Kehlet left their home in Beverley and headed towards the remote outback town of Sandstone WA, around 730 kilometres northeast of Perth. The couple planned to prospect for gold amongst the many abandoned mine shafts peppering the Australian outback in these parts. But the trio weren’t alone; along for the trip was their friend named Graham Milne. Over...

6th of November 1984 Melbourne Cup Day They say it’s ‘the race that stops a nation’. Australia’s most famous horse race, it’s also a world-class one that’s among the top sporting events in the world - sitting alongside other famous races like the Kentucky Derby in the USA and The Royal Ascot in England. But in 1984 Melbourne Cup Day wasn’t a day to be celebrated by Kylie Maybury and her family. Jo...

Senior Constable Robert Richardson arrived with his tracking dog named Zuma. Zuma was given the scent and quickly began tracking down Dath St towards Vernon Terrace and around to an underground car park beneath a commercial brick building. Within this dark underground carpark were a number of commercial-sized dumpsters. Zuma indicated strongly towards one of the bins. Police swooped in swiftly and...

20th of January 2017 Windsor, Melbourne, Victoria. At around 8am, a channel 9 news team were covering a story about a man who had been viciously stabbed by his own brother, outside their mother’s apartment. The victim was fighting for his life in hospital. The channel 9 reporter discussing the crime was interrupted by a maroon Holden Commodore, which pulled up slowly behind her. The driver leaned...

The house was dark and every door to the place was locked. Constable Macarty eventually found a bedroom window that was ajar, and managed to pry it open and slide into the dark house. He went to the front door and let Detective Wild in, before the pair turned the lights on and had a wander around. They walked back down the hallway and into the bedroom where Macarty had gained access - and it was h...

*This episode was originally released on our Patreon feed back in June this year. We wanted to give you all a complete example, not just a preview, of the type of content we produce on Patreon. Our premium Blue Label episodes are delivered monthly, alongside many other benefits such as ad-free regular episodes, blooper reels, polls, Q&A’s and discounts in our merch store* The Honolulu Strangle...

In the digital age, a world where we are all so connected it seems like we all know so much about other people. No one could simply vanish, could they? Someone would know something, someone would post something online, someone would say something. That wasn't the case for Tej Chitnis. He left for university like any other day 3 years ago and he was never seen again... Join Shaun and Chloe as they...

9th of May 1999, Snowtown, South Australia Jamie and David made the trip to Snowtown, where Jamie had organised for them to check out a cheap computer a mate of his was selling. $200 - a deal that was too good to pass up. They arrived in around an hour, parked out the front of the old bank building and wandered inside. David saw the computer and then he saw John Bunting, who he knew. 'This is the...

Tuesday 16th of August, 1994, Lower Light, 50 kilometres north of Adelaide, South Australia. No wind and no rain - the perfect conditions for brothers Jack and Ron Finch to conduct weed spraying on their 4000 acre farm. The brothers worked tirelessly all morning. After lunch, they returned to their arduous work, spotting what appeared to be a fox burrow up ahead. Ron pointed it out and Jack manoeu...

On 25 April 1978, Bill and Valda Thomas were mushrooming in remote bushland alongside Swamp Road near the South Australian town of Truro, when they stumbled upon what they thought was the bone from the leg of a cow. When they couldn't shake the image from their minds, they returned to the area two days later for another look. Upon closer inspection, they saw that the bone had a shoe attached; insi...

The bodies of five young men were discovered in the broader area of Adelaide between the years 1979 and 1983. All of the bodies displayed signs of brutal sexual torture, leading to their deaths. Some were mutilated and dismembered. A doctor was tried and acquitted for one of the murders, and an accountant was imprisoned for life for committing another. But four of the murders remain technically un...

Arthur Stanley Brown was charged in 1998 for the August 26, 1970 rape and murder of Judith and Susan Mackay in Townsville, Queensland. The jury failed to reach a verdict and a new trial was blocked on the grounds that Brown was mentally incapable of understanding the charges against him. Brown's arrest attracted wide publicity, leading to a witness to the abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste G...

Joanne Ratcliffe (11) and Kirste Gordon (4) were abducted while attending an Australian rules football match at the Adelaide Oval on 25 August 1973. Despite the case making national headlines at the time, the presumed abduction and murder is often linked and overshadowed by the disappearance of the Beaumont children in 1966. The case is also referred to as the Adelaide Oval Abductions. Join Shaun...

Jane, Arnna, and Grant Beaumont were three siblings who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia on a blistering hot Australia Day, 26 January, 1966. They were aged 9, 7, and 4 years respectively. They have never been seen again. The case is widely credited with changing Australian lifestyles; parents could no longer assume their children were safe when unsupervised in public....

Derek Ernest Percy was a child killer who was linked to the unsolved deaths and disappearances of nine children in the 1960s. Join Shaun and Chloe as they discuss Percy's known history, interspersed with the crimes he's been linked with as a potential suspect. Warning: this episode contains graphic accounts of pedophilia and paraphilia. Please exercise self-care if you choose to listen to this epi...

On Monday the 11th of January 1965, Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock took four of Schmidt's younger siblings to Wanda Beach for a day trip. The blustery weather forced the group to seek refuge amongst the sand dunes. Marianne and Christine left the four youngsters to go and fetch their bags, telling the children they'd return shortly, then they'd all head home. The girls never returned... J...

Christopher Bernard Wilder, also known as The Beauty Queen Killer, was a serial killer from Australia who abducted, tortured, raped, and murdered a number of women during a two-month cross-country crime spree in the USA in early 1984. From Sydney's beaches, to a Miami playboy lifestyle, to finally, a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list; the story of Christopher Wilder is one that has to be hear...