Podcasts by Dead Bodies Podcast
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 look at where dead bodies have been found, how they got there, and most importantly, the effect on people who found them.
We talk to people who deal with death daily as part of their jobs, and people who weren’t prepared for the shock of finding a dead body.
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Further podcasts by Dead Bodies Podcast
Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
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Ep 129 - The Brighton Murders and Joey’s priceless feedback from 2022-02-21T01:00:04
Today, Brighton is one of Melbourne’s wealthiest suburbs, but in 1853 it was the scene of two bizarre murders, with a bag of sugar left on the victim’s head.
And we unpack some frank feedb...
Ep 128 - Roger Dean, and The Messiest Execution from 2022-02-07T01:00:15
Nurse Roger Dean was working in a Sydney nursing when he murdered 11 elderly residents by setting a fire to the facility as they slept on November 18, 2011.
Allen Lee Davis was sent to th...
Ep 127 - David Fuller, and Marvallous Keene from 2021-12-20T01:00:06
In this special Christmas episode we cover the 1992 “Christmas killings” in Dayton, Ohio. Marvallos Keene was the head of a gang that murdered six people.
Hospital worker David Fuller plea...
Ep 126 - Harold Shipman, Sylvia Likens from 2021-09-13T02:00:07
Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner who is believed to be one of the most prolific serial kille...
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Ep 125 - Bobbie Jo Stinnett, and Martin van Butchell from 2021-08-30T02:00:05
The body of pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett was found in her home in Missouri in 2004. Her unborn foetus had been cut from her womb. The killer, Lisa Marie Montgomery, was put to death by lethal inject...
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Ep 124 - Candace Newmaker, and Sharnelle in Quarantine from 2021-08-16T02:00:06
Ten-year-old Candace Newmaker was killed during a bizarre therapy session designed to help her bond with her adoptive mother. She was suffocated by so-called therapists who were trying to force her...
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Ep 123 - Owen Pellow and Death on the Stairs from 2021-07-26T02:00:01
How would you behave if your partner had just been stabbed multiple times, and the police came knocking on your door? We share the police bodycam footage that captured the odd behaviour of killer O...
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Ep 122 - Tia Sharp, Brooke’s Uncle John from 2021-07-12T02:19:23
12-year-old Tia Sharp went shopping in August 2012 in New Addington, London, England, and it was weeks before her body was found in the roof of her grandmother’s home. Suspicion fell upon the partn...
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Ep 121 - The BTK Killer Dennis Rader from 2021-06-28T02:00:09
“BTK” stands for “bind, torture, kill”: Dennis Lyn Rader gave himself the title. Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, and sent taunting letters to police...
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Ep 120 - Sef Gonzales from 2021-06-14T02:00:03
Sef Gonzales was found guilty of murdering his father Teodoro "Teddy" Gonzales, his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales, and his sister Clodine Gonzales, in Sydney, Australia, in 2001. He’s serving three co...
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Ep 119 - Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson. from 2021-05-24T02:00
In 1971, Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson went missing on their way to an end of school year party in South Dakota in the US. It was 42 years before the mystery of their disappearance was finally ...
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Ep 118 - The Loch Ard, and the Kobe Bryant Law from 2021-05-10T02:00
More than 50 passengers drowned when the Loch Ard ran aground in Victoria in 1978. But those weren’t the only deaths along the same rugged Port Campbell coastline. In 1970, four dead bodies were fo...
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Ep 117 - Herb Baumeister, and Hanged, Drawn and Quartered from 2021-04-26T02:00:01
Herbert Baumeister seemed to his wife and children to be a regular businessman and they lived together on an 18-acre horse farm called Fox Hollow. But Herb had a secret, and had strangled several m...
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Ep 116 - Richard Speck, Andre Daigle from 2021-04-05T02:00
Richard Speck raped, tortured and murdered eight student nurses from South Chicago Community Hospital in 1966. And he would have gotten away with it, were it not for the extraordinary bravery of Co...
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Ep 115 - Elevator and Escalator deaths, and Dead Uncle from 2021-03-22T01:00
Everyone is talking about the footage of Elisa Lam in the elevator in the Netflix documentary Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. We look into a number of deaths on escalators and elevat...
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Ep 114 - Check Your Boobs from 2021-03-08T01:00:02
We’re putting the dead bodies aside for this episode, as Sharnelle shares a deeply personal story from a recent event in her life.
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Ep 113 - The Bluebelle, and Dorian Corey from 2021-02-22T01:00:05
The 18-metre sailing ketch The Bluebelle was the scene of several brutal murders in November, 1961, off the Bahamas. The killer survived the sinking of the vessel, and he didn’t count on an 11-year...
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Ep 112 - The Philadelphia Cutters, and Elizabeth Bathory from 2021-02-08T01:00:28
A wicked scheme where tissue and bone were stripped from corpses at funeral homes and then sold them for transplants - without the permission of the families - led to the arrest of former dental su...
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Ep 111 - Thomas Easby’s skin, and Lavender Doe from 2021-01-25T00:59:59
A tiny witness led to Thomas Easby being found guilty of the murder of his family. He was hanged, and trophies that exist to this day were taken from his dead body.
An unidentified body w...
Ep 110 - Bega Schoolgirl Murders Part 2, and Coffin Births from 2021-01-11T01:00
Notorious Bega schoolgirl killer Leslie Camilleri was jailed for 28 years for the murder of 13-year-old Prue Bird in 1992. He was already serving two life sentences without parole for raping and mu...
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Ep 109 - Traigo Andretti, and Bega School girl Murders Part 1 from 2021-01-04T01:00:04
Two schoolgirls were abducted, raped and murdered in Bega, New South Wales, Australia on 6 October 1997. Lindsay Beckett claimed that he killed the girls under the orders of Leslie Camilleri.
<...
Ep 108 - Eric Edgar Cooke, and Kermit Gosnall from 2020-12-28T01:00:04
Eric Edgar Cooke was known as the "Night Caller". He terrorised Perth, Western Australia in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, committing at least twenty-two violent crimes, and eight murders.
...
Ep 107 - Cheeseman Park Bodies, Glenys Heyward from 2020-12-21T01:00:09
In 1858, Cheesman Park in Denver, Colorado, was a graveyard called Prospect Hill Cemetery. When it closed, and the moving of the bodies was left to an undertaker named E.P. McGovern things started ...
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Ep 106 - Hartford circus fire, mummified baby from 2020-12-14T01:00:10
July 6, 1944, as the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was beginning its 2pm matinee performance, a fire started under the big top, killing 167 people and injuring more than 700. It was yea...
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Ep 105 - Bottlebaby, and the mystery of Juan Pedro Gomez from 2020-11-30T01:00:02
The Case of Juan Pedro Martinez Gomez, Europe’s strangest disappearance.
Bassmah and Sabrina are back… with Bottlebaby!
And we hear from Susanne in Sweden, where they have fabulous ac...
Ep 104 - Anatoly Moskvyn returns, the Queen Street Massacre from 2020-11-23T01:00:03
December 8, 1987, in Melbourne, Australia, a gunman opened fire in the Queen Street offices of Australia Post offices. He killed eight people before throwing himself out of an 11th-floor window.
Ep 103 - Dorothea Puente, and Kylie Maybury from 2020-11-16T01:00:11
Dorothea Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California and murdered her elderly and mentally disabled boarders, leading to her being dubbed the "Death House Landlady".
Kylie Maybur...
Ep 102 - Herman Rockefeller and the Strathfield Massacre from 2020-11-08T23:59:59
Melbourne millionaire Herman Rockefeller’s disappearance mystified police, until they untangled his complex life that involved a secret mistress and an underground ''swingers'' network.
Wa...
Ep 101 - John Conn and Buddy Musso from 2020-11-02T01:00:14
John Conn was found guilty of the murder of Aveline Littler and sentenced to hang at Bathurst jail in 1872. The headlines read: “Frightful Scene” after an incident occurred in his final moments.
Ep 100 - Evelyn Dick, and the Footscray Axe Murder from 2020-08-03T02:00:06
When children found the torso of a missing man - John Dick - in Hamilton, Ontario, they quickly focussed on his estranged wife Evelyn Dick. What they didn’t expect was to find another dead body in ...
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Ep 99 - Photographing the Dead, and The Sausage King from 2020-07-27T01:59:59
Several incidents where emergency workers have taken photos of corpses and shared them online - causing distress to grieving families - we discuss whether there should be a wholesale ban anyone tak...
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Ep 98 - Peter Kurten and Tik Tok Bodies from 2020-07-20T02:00
A group of teenagers using the app Randonautica in Seattle found a suitcase containing human remains and posted the video on TikTok.
Peter Kürten was a German serial killer who committed a...
Ep 97 - Olaf Perkman, and Amadeep Sada from 2020-06-29T02:00:02
In 2007, police in Bhagavanpur in India received multiple phone calls alerting them to a most unexpected killing spree. They would eventually arrest a most surprising murderer: eight year old Amade...
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Ep 96 - Vicki Barton, and Arnfinn Nesset from 2020-06-22T02:00:02
Vicki Barton was 8 when she vanished in broad daylight from the main street of Lawson, in the New South Wales Blue Mountains. After years of searching, false leads, a big reward and a clairvoyant, ...
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Ep 95 - Doug’s Ghost, and Richard Chase from 2020-06-15T02:00
*Warning: this episode contains mention of cruelty to animals.
Richard Chase killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California. He drank his victims' blood and cannibaliz...
BONUS Episode - Forrest Fenn Treasure - FOUND! from 2020-06-10T08:49:09
In November, 2019, we brought you the story of the bodies of four men that were found at separate times in a similar area of the Rocky Mountains in the US. Although they didn’t know each other, the...
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Ep 94 - Klaus Andres and Janelle Patton from 2020-06-01T02:13:51
Klaus Andres killed his wife and used acid to dissolve her body and then washed her down a drain outside his home in Cairns. All that was left of her body was 10 porcelain teeth.
In 2002, ...
Ep 93 - Darren Clover, and Sada Abe from 2020-05-25T06:52:48
Darren Clover murdered three people by setting fire to a disused factory in Melbourne's west in 2017. David Griffiths, his girlfriend Tanya Burmeister and her daughter Zoe were sleeping in the fact...
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Ep 92 - Coronavirus Bodies, The Westgate Bridge Collapse from 2020-05-18T02:00:03
Sharnelle looks at the disposal of the world’s mounting toll of bodies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic
Two years into construction of Melbourne’s Westgate bridge, a 112-metre span col...
Ep 91 - Vatthana Chounlamountry, and Colin Pitchfork from 2020-05-11T02:00:04
British murderer and rapist Colin Pitchfork was the first person convicted of murder based on DNA fingerprinting evidence. He attacked and killed two girls in Narborough in 1983, and in Enderby in...
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Ep 90 - Hobart Murder House, and The Eggplant Murder from 2020-05-04T02:00:19
Tasmania’s notorious murder house at 99 Hill Street in West Hobart was sold recently. Three decades ago it was the scene of a gruesome murder. Rory Jack Thompson strangled and dismembered his wife...
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Ep 89 - Patricia Stallings, Paula Sims and The Bike Path Rapist from 2020-04-20T02:00:03
Altemio Sanchez murdered and raped at least three women in and around Buffalo, New York, between from 1981 and 2006, and became known as the Bike Path Rapist.
When Patricia Stallings’ baby...
Ep 88 - Emery Medor, and Tracie Andrews from 2020-04-13T02:00:03
A black mourning card and a bunch of radishes led to the brutal murder of a stallholder at Melbourne’s Eastern Markets in 1899 by phrenologist Emery Medor.
Tracie Andrews’ fiancee Lee Raym...
Ep 87 - The Chaff Bag Murder and Jane Andrews from 2020-04-06T02:00:03
Tuesday, November 30 1937, a farmer found the body of a woman in his peach orchard near the entrance to Lake Parramatta reserve. There was a chaff bag over her head and shoulders
Jane Andr...
86 - Rosemaria Lauria and Deborah O’Connor from 2020-03-30T01:00:02
North Carolina cold case detectives have arrested the mother of a newborn who died after being tossed from a moving car 21 years ago. Deborah Riddle O'Connor was linked via DNA to “Baby Michael”by ...
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Ep 85 - The Collar Bomb and Shark Attacks from 2020-03-23T01:00
On August 28, 2003, pizza delivery man Brian Wells robbed a bank. Fifteen minutes later he was arrested in a nearby parking lot, with a collar bomb locked around his neck. Brian’s death in the bom...
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Ep 84 - Geoffrey Dahmer and The Sussex Butcher from 2020-03-16T02:11:56
Jeffrey Dahmer killed 17 men between 1978 and 1991. He met them at gay bars, malls and bus stops, and lured them to his home with promises of money or sex, before strangling and dismembering them. ...
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Ep 83 - Alma Tirtsche and Lonnie David Franklin Junior from 2020-03-09T01:00
On 31 December 1921, the body of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke was found in a laneway in Melbourne, Australia. She had been raped, strangled and left naked behind a popular wine saloon. The owner of t...
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Ep 82 - The Ghost Train Fire, and Ashley’s Message from the Other Side from 2020-03-02T01:00
A fire in the Ghost Train ride at Sydney’s Luna Park in 1979 killed six children and one man.
Listener Ashley shares her bizarre account of a tragic message from beyond the grave while sh...
Ep 81 - Jessica Pearce, and Cats Eating Bodies from 2020-02-24T01:00
A young woman known to her friends as Jessica Pearce died being thrown from a car in an accident on the Hume Highway in New South Wales in 1987. It was 31 years before she would be correctly identi...
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Ep 80 - Dead Body Skin, and Aberfan from 2020-02-17T01:00
Having recently been in New Zealand reporting on the White Island volcano, Sharnelle looks at the harvesting of skin from human dead bodies to heal the wounds of the injured.
The coal mini...
Ep 79 - Deadly Plagues, and Chrissie Venn from 2020-02-10T01:00:10
With the world in the grip of the coronavirus outbreak, we look back at some of the deadly plagues, epidemics and pandemics that have caused millions of deaths over the centuries.
Chrissie...
Ep 78 - The Moors Murders, and Victor McCaskell from 2019-12-23T01:00:03
In the 1960s, Ian Brady and his girlfriend, Myra Hindley, sexually abused and murdered young children and teens, then buried their bodies along the Saddleworth Moor, in what became known as the Moo...
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Ep 77 - Lindsay Rose, and John Wayne Gacy from 2019-12-16T01:00:13
Lindsay Robert Rose was a paramedic in 1977, where he was among the rescuers who worked to save lives after the Granville train disaster. But his life took a dramatic turn after that, and he is no...
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Ep 76 - The Granville Train Disaster, and The Batavia shipwreck Psycho from 2019-12-09T01:00:03
January 18, 1977, a morning passenger train headed from the Blue Mountains to Sydney Central Station de-railed at Granville and smashed into the pillars of a bridge, which collapsed on several carr...
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Ep 75 - Dr Cranstoun, and A Murderer In The Family from 2019-12-02T01:00:03
In 1922, Melbourne doctor in the bayside suburb of Hampton injected his family and their housekeeper with - in some cases, lethal - doses of morphine. Dr George Elliot Cranstoun appeared to be a p...
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Ep 74 - The Michigan Murderer, and the Treasure Chest Death from 2019-11-25T01:00:03
John Norman Collins is serving life behind bars for killing a young woman in Michigan in 1970. And police believe he is responsible for the rape and mutilation of a total of seven young women in a ...
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Ep 73 - Olivia Gant, and the Botanic Gardens Massacre (the banter-free episode) from 2019-11-18T01:00:03
Seven-year-old Olivia Gant was - according to her mother - suffering from a rare and fatal disease, suffered from seizures, autism, severe allergies, and intestinal failure - and she died in 2017. ...
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Ep 72 - Sarah Cafferkey, and Jeffrey Gilham from 2019-11-11T01:00:04
22-year-old Sarah Cafferkey was bashed and stabbed by Steven James Hunter in Bacchus Marsh in 2012, after the pair had an argument. Her body was found in a wheelie bin at a home in Point Cook nine ...
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Ep 71 - The Butcher of Wollongong, and Jessie Donker from 2019-11-04T01:00:02
The murder of David O’Hearn in Wollongong in 1998 was described by season police as the most gruesome they had ever come across, with body parts strewn around the house. Within days, former Mayor F...
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Ep 70 - Charles Mihayo, and Corrie Van der Valk from 2019-10-28T01:00:02
Melbourne man Charles Mihayo smothered his daughters, Savannah, 4, and Indianna, 3, on April 20 2014, in a horrifying act of revenge after his divorce from the girls’ mother. Sharnelle shares her r...
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Ep 69 - Cotard Delusion and Manuel Blanco Romasanta from 2019-10-21T01:00:02
Cotard Delusion is an extremely rare condition where a person believes that they - or a part of their body - is dead. In extreme cases it can lead to actual death.
Manuel Blanco Romasant...
Ep 68 - The Tri-State Crematory, and the Lovers Lane Murders from 2019-10-14T01:00:04
In 2002, 339 bodies that had been sent to the Tri-State Crematory in northwest Georgia, in the US, were found dumped on the crematorium's site. This led to civil litigation and criminal prosecution...
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Ep 67 - Carmen Thomas, and Dead Bodies that Move from 2019-10-09T01:00:04
Carmen Thomas was 32 and the mother of a five year old son, when she went missing from the New Zealand suburb of Remuera in July 2010. Texts had been sent from her phone, but her car was found aban...
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Ep 66 - Clementine Barnabet, and The Body in The Bin from 2019-09-30T02:00:04
Clementine Barnabet was a serial mass murderer in Louisiana and Texas in the 1920’s. The killing spree was initially blamed on her father, but eventually police honed in on Clementine, who confesse...
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Ep 65 - Yu Tung Lo, and Henrietta Lacks from 2019-09-23T02:00:16
In a deadly love triangle, Yu Tung Lo manipulated her friend Daniel Duhovic into shooting dead a man he had never met - 48-year-old Paul Hogan - in May 2016. Rather than marry as they had planned, ...
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Ep 64 - Chris Watts, and The London School explosion from 2019-09-16T02:00:06
August 2018, Colorado, Christopher Watts killed his pregnant wife Shan'ann and their daughters, Bella, 4, and Celeste. He then disposed of his daughters' bodies in oil tanks and buried his wife in ...
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Ep 63 - Benjamin Field, and the Truro Murders from 2019-09-09T02:00:16
Benjamin Field was found guilty of murdering 69-year-old Peter Farquhar, by drugging him and encouraging him to drink alcohol over a two-year period. He also set his sights on Farquhar’s neighbour ...
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Ep 62 - Jerry Brudos from 2019-08-26T02:00:16
American serial killer Jerry Brudos murdered at least four women in Oregon between 1968 and 1969. Brudos kept the bodies - and body parts - of his victims hidden in his home. He was a necrophile wi...
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Ep 61 - Nice things, Nice Things from 2019-08-05T02:00:05
Have you ever seen a dead body? We share some of your stories, including the kids who found a “green, wrinkly crocodile” in a swampy lake, that was linked to the disappearance of a local woman.
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Ep 60 - Eva Peron, and Roger Kelso from 2019-07-29T02:00:05
A dead body found in a rubbish bin in Maryland in 1985 has finally been identified through genetic genealogy. The victim, Roger Kelso, had been murdered back in 1963, but his body was unidentified ...
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Ep 59 - Alfonso Bennett, and the Cantrell Funeral Home from 2019-07-22T02:00:04
Conditions at the Cantrell Funeral Home deteriorated over the years, with horrific treatment of the bodies of the dead. In August 2018 investigators entered the building and discovered rotting corp...
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Ep 58 - Lindsay Jellett, and John List from 2019-07-15T02:00:04
The dead body of 41-year-old intellectually disabled man Lindsay Jellett was found on the side of the road in Ararat in 1994. At first it appeared he was the victim of a hit-and-run, but accident ...
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Ep 57 - Melanie Road, Nightmare on Hickory from 2019-07-08T02:00
Seventeen-year-old Melanie Road was stabbed to death as she made her way home from a nightclub in Bath in the UK in June 1984. With no DNA technology to work with, and despite massive efforts, pol...
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Ep 56 - James Byrd Jr, and Bertha Coughlan from 2019-07-01T02:00
James Byrd Jr. was a black man who was murdered by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Brewer, and John King dragged along the road Byrd behind a picku...
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Ep 55 - Refrigerator Deaths and Tillie Klimek from 2019-06-24T01:59:59
We rely on our refrigerators to keep our food fresh. But when it’s time to throw an old fridge out, there’s a warning: they can become deadly.
“Tillie” Klimek was born in Poland in 1876, b...
Ep 54 - The Sydney Mutilator and Phil Spector from 2019-06-17T02:00:06
In the early 1960’s, police were baffled by a series of gruesome crimes that they said was the work of The Sydney Mutilator. William MacDonald was eventually caught and jailed for life for the kil...
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Ep 53 - Rebecca Schaffer, The Torso In The Tank from 2019-06-10T02:00:05
Actress Rebecca Schaeffer lived in a quiet and seemingly safe area of LA. But a crazed fan stalked her, found her home, and murdered her in cold blood.
Workers cleaning out a massive stor...
Ep 52 - Daniel O’Keeffe, The Black Dahlia from 2019-06-03T06:45:47
In 2011, 24-year-old Daniel O'Keeffe went missing from his parent's home in Geelong. His family mounted and extraordinary social media campaign,but it was five years before they found out what had ...
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Ep 51 - Karen Greenlee, and Terrible Twins from 2019-05-27T02:00:07
A necrophile is a person who is sexually attracted to corpses. Nine out of ten necrophiles are men. It is extremely rare for a woman to indulge in necrophilia: Karen Greenlee was one of them. She ...
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Ep 50 - Todd Kohlhepp, and Dianne Brimble from 2019-05-20T02:00:09
Serial killer Todd Kohlhepp was convicted of murdering seven people in South Carolina between 2003 and 2016. His violent life of crime started when he was just 15, and ended when one of his eight v...
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Ep 49 - Deaths on Stage, and The Darwin Awards Worst Deaths from 2019-05-13T02:00:09
When an actor “dies” on stage, the audience is usually confident that they’re only acting, but that is not always the case. On more than one occasion, theatre-goers have unwittingly watched an actu...
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Ep 48 - The Dyatlov Pass Incident, and Gabriel Omar Chang from 2019-05-06T02:00:09
In 1959, nine hikers died in the northern Ural Mountains in the former Soviet Union, in what became known as The Dyatlov Pass incident. They set up camp, but during the night, something caused the...
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Ep 47 - Alexander Pearce the Cannibal Convict, and Chubby Bunny from 2019-04-29T02:00:09
In Tasmania, in 1822, Alexander Pearce is one of eight convicts who escape from the Macquarie Harbour penal settlement into the mountain wilderness on the mainland. When they run out of food their ...
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Ep 46 - School Pallbearers, and the Exorcism of Joan Vollmer from 2019-04-22T02:00:04
Imagine dying, and nobody came to your funeral. Homeless men and women are spared that bleak prospect thanks to Roxbury Latin School’s Ave Atque Vale program — through which Class I boys act as pa...
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Ep 45 - The Drowned Mona Lisa, and Hart Island from 2019-04-15T02:00:24
L'Inconnue de la Seine translates from French as The Unknown Woman of the Seine. The unidentified young woman whose dead body was pulled from the River Seine in the 1800’s later became known as The...
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Ep 44 - Kodokushi, Cardboard Dead Bodies from 2019-04-08T02:00:02
Kodokushi or lonely death refers to a Japanese phenomenon of people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long period of time. We look at why a growing number of dead bodies are being found ...
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Ep 43 - Leonard Lawson, and America’s Unclaimed Bodies from 2019-04-01T01:00:02
America has a glut of unclaimed bodies, and the dead are piling up quicker than morgues can deal with them. We look at where the corpses end up.
Leonard Lawson was an Australian artist wh...
Ep 42 - James Bulger, and Clement Vallandigham from 2019-03-25T01:00:09
James Bulger was two years old in 1993 when he was abducted, tortured and killed by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables in Merseyside in the UK. 26 years later the case is still ...
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Ep 41 - Brynn Rainey and Carol Andersen, and Caroline Byrne from 2019-03-18T01:00:08
An emerging DNA technique has been used to solve the murders of two young women in El Dorado County, California, more than 40 years ago. Joseph Holt was identified as the killer of Brynn Rainey in ...
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Ep 40 - Frances Knorr the Baby Farmer, and the Body On The Bed from 2019-03-11T01:00:08
Frances Knorr was known as the Baby Farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling an infant and hanged at Pentridge Prison in Melbourne on Monday 15 January 1894. Other bodies of babies th...
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Ep 39 - Armin Meiwes, and Rack Man from 2019-03-04T01:00:03
In 2001, Armin Meiwes killed and ate Bernd Brandes, who had placed an ad in the paper offering “the chance to eat me alive”. We establish whether it is okay to eat someone if they have given you th...
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Ep 38 - Warren Meyer, and Spontaneous Human Combustion from 2019-02-25T01:00:06
58-year-old Warren Meyer went for a walk in the bush at Dom Dom Saddle in the Yarra Ranges National Park on March 21, 2008. He was never seen again. We track the search for him, through evidence h...
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Ep 37 - Tracey Wigginton, and Skeletons in the Suburbs from 2019-02-18T01:00:05
The death of Edward Baldock in Brisbane in 1989 was described as one of the most brutal and bizarre crimes Australia had ever seen at the time. The discovery of his body, found drained of 75 percen...
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Ep 36 - Vincent Brothers and Bodies in The Lake from 2019-02-11T01:00:05
In 2003 the bodies of a woman, her three children, and her mother were found dead in a house in Bakersfield California. Police used extraordinary forensics, including insects embedded in a rental c...
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Ep 35 - Bona Lual and Suzi Oghia. Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak from 2019-02-04T01:00:05
Bona Lual murdered his wife Suzi Oghia and then mutilated her eyes in their Noble Park, Victoria, home in 2013. As he desecrated her dead body their four children lay sleeping nearby.
Lau...
Ep 34 - Human Compost and Plastination from 2019-01-28T01:00:03
For those who don’t like the thought of burial or cremation, new ways of disposing of human bodies are being found, including composting and hydrolysis.
Gunther Von Hagens is the German sc...
Ep 33 - BONUS! from 2019-01-25T01:00:03
Update on the Babies of Tuam, and details on Joseph Michael Housden and his murder of Lillian Mole in Frankston in 1984.
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Ep 32 - Ruth Coker Burks from 2019-01-21T01:00:06
Ruth Coker Burks cared for hundreds of dying people from 1984 until the mid 1990’s. Many of them she buried herself when their families abandoned them because they were gay, and had AIDS.
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Ep 31 - The Corpse in the Carpet and Andrew Ure’s Body Experiment from 2019-01-14T01:00:05
You never know what you’ll find in the hard rubbish. In 1984 three Columbia University students picked up what they thought was a nice piece of carpet, but it contained a nasty surprise.
I...
Ep 30 - Nikki Coslovich and The Chohan Murders from 2019-01-07T01:00:05
Two-year-old Nikki Coslovich went missing in Mildura in 2015. Sharnelle recalls covering the search for her, the finding of her body, and the ensuing court case.
In 2003 the bodies of Amar...
Ep 29 - Nice Things, Nice Things from 2018-12-31T01:00:05
In our final episode for 2018, we share Dead Bodies stories from our listeners. Dice has seen three dead bodies and had two near-death experiences; Miranda has a comment on the Sofina Nikat case; C...
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Ep 28 - Flesh Fajitas and Ruth Snyder DEAD! from 2018-12-24T01:00:05
Would you eat human flesh? A man who had his leg amputated after a motorcycle accident made it into fajita tacos and served it to his friends.
Ruth Snyder was sent to the electric chair at...
Ep 27 - The Human Fish and The Body In The Boot from 2018-12-17T01:00:06
Neil Gordon Wilson pretended to be a fish. People in his home town of Horsham in Victoria accepted his quirky ways, but were shocked when his dead body was found in a paddock in 1995.
Mari...
Ep 26 - The Babies of Tuam, and the World’s Most Expensive Funerals from 2018-12-10T01:00:08
The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home was run by Catholic nuns in Tuam, County Galway, in Ireland, from 1925 to 1961. Dee Dee looks at the ongoing investigation into a mass burial chamber found on t...
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Ep 25 - James Gargasoulas, and The Body In The Oyster Shop from 2018-12-03T01:00:04
James Gargasoulas murdered six pedestrians and injured another 27 when he sped his car along a footpath in Bourke Street, Melbourne, in 2017. After covering his trial, Sharnelle recounts the horro...
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Ep 24 - Ned Kelly, Fred Deeming and Charlie Chaplin from 2018-11-26T01:00:04
Ned Kelly was a notorious Irish-Australian outlaw. He killed three police officers and was hanged in 1880, and buried close to another vile murderer, Frederick Deeming, who was once suspected of be...
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Ep 23 - Funeral Strippers and The Shark Arm Case from 2018-11-19T01:00:08
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...
Ep 22 - Gram Parsons, and Dead Bodies in the sky from 2018-11-12T01:00:09
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 wis...
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Ep 21 - The Florida Ghost from 2018-11-05T01:00:07
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 1...
Ep 20 - Jonestown and Burial Customs from 2018-10-29T00:00:03
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,...
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Ep 19 - A Dead Body Under The Motel Bed from 2018-10-22T01:00:03
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.
Sharn...
Ep 18 - Sofina Nikat and Sheree Beasley from 2018-10-15T01:00:09
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 B...
Ep 17 - The Bodies In The Barrels from 2018-10-08T01:00:09
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 t...
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Ep 16 - The Lady Who Woke Up in The Morgue from 2018-10-01T01:00:09
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 lega...
Ep 15 - The Stewmaker from 2018-09-24T01:00:06
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.
Sharn...
Ep 14 - Body Snatchers and Body Keepers from 2018-09-17T01:00:06
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 sna...
Ep 13 - Emmett Till, Weird Wills & the Undertaker’s Roommate from 2018-09-10T01:00:06
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 e...
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Ep 12 - Walter Schels, Boulder Jane Doe and Martha Needle from 2018-09-03T02:00:06
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 c...
Ep 11 - Cadaver dogs from 2018-08-27T02:00:08
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:...
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Ep 10 - Human soap and biscuits from 2018-08-20T02:00:08
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 C...
Ep 9 - Pies Made of People from 2018-08-13T06:35:57
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 ...
Ep 8 - The Bodies in the Chimney from 2018-08-06T02:40:28
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...
Ep 7 - The Obsession of Carl Tanzler from 2018-07-29T23:50:27
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 sh...
Ep 6 - Hugo has found three dead bodies from 2018-07-23T02:06:12
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 l...
Ep 5 - Matthew Hoffman, and the body on the red carpet from 2018-07-16T00:53:54
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 dismem...
Ep 4 - Edith Cook: the body under the floor from 2018-07-09T02:31:11
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.
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Ep 3 - Severed penis at Flinders St from 2018-07-02T01:57:46
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...
Ep 2 - Evelyn McHale, Aceh and Weegee from 2018-06-24T23:38:47
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...
Ep 1 - The little girl and the plantation from 2018-06-24T23:32:40
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 Dea...
Introducing: The Dead Bodies Podcast from 2018-06-12T23:48:18
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 ...
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