Two 15-year-olds vanish after heading to a disco in Wollongong.

An 18-year-old Belgian backpacker disappears after a night out in Byron Bay.

A 20-year-old Navy recruit vanishes from a casino lobby in a matter of minutes.

These are just a few of Australia’s missing persons cases you may never have heard of. Each year, more than 56,000 people are reported missing across the country. Most are found. But over 2,500 remain missing long-term, their names and stories slowly fading from public memory.

Nicole Morris, Director of the Australian Missing Persons Register and author of Vanished and Missing, refuses to let them be forgotten.

Find the Australian Missing Persons Register here.

Find Nicole's books here.

CREDITS

Guest: Nicole Morris

Host: Gemma Bath

Senior Producer: Tahli Blackman

Group Executive Producer: Ilaria Brophy

Audio Engineer: Jacob Round

GET IN TOUCH

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @truecrimeconversations

Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple & Spotify to let us know how you're liking the episodes.

Want us to cover a case on the podcast? Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note.

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

We’re giving away a Your Reformer Pilates bed (worth $3,400) Subscribe to enter

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who would try to hire a hitman to kill an innocent young girl?

In early 2021, Riley ended a relationship with a man she had been in a year-long online relationship with after she alleges he assaulted her. Despite the breakup, he continued to message her relentlessly.

Instead of backing down, Scott escalated his feelings of anger, turning to the dark web. He paid $19,000 AUD to hire a hitman to kill her.

The reality of the plot became clear when police knocked on the door of Riley’s family home. It was her mother, Jamie Elder, who answered, learning that someone had tried to arrange her daughter’s murder.

Jamie is now Riley’s advocate, fighting for justice while the man accused of orchestrating the hit walks free. You can follow Jamie on TikTok and support her advocacy here.

CREDITS

Guest: Jamie Elder

Host: Gemma Bath

Senior Producer: Tahli Blackman

Group Executive Producer: Ilaria Brophy

Audio Engineer: Jacob Round

GET IN TOUCH

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @truecrimeconversations

Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple & Spotify to let us know how you're liking the episodes.

Want us to cover a case on the podcast? Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note.

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

We’re giving away a Your Reformer Pilates bed (worth $3,400) Subscribe to enter

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On September 7, 1971, at a remote farmhouse 40 kilometres south of Adelaide, Clifford Bartholomew killed 10 people. His wife, his seven children, his sister-in-law and her 19-month-old son. He shot them all dead.

He was sentenced to death, but because of changes to the law, he wasn’t killed. Instead, he was re-sentenced to life in prison and managed to serve just eight years before being released on parole.

He changed his name, his identity and created an entirely new family who knew nothing about his previous life or his crimes… until now.

THE END BITS

Subscribe to Mamamia

CREDITS

Guests: Craig Cook & Allen Arthur

Host: Gemma Bath

Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Jacob Round

GET IN TOUCH

Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note, and one of our Podcast Producers will get back to you ASAP.

Rate or review us on Apple by clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner, click Go To Show then scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the stars at the bottom and write a review.

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On a summer evening in January 1983, 10-year-old Louise Bell went missing from her bedroom in Adelaide's Hackham West.

It was a case that horrified Australia, as every parent's worst nightmare became reality for the Bell family. How could a young girl tucked up in her bed in a safe, suburban neighbourhood just go missing in the middle of the night?

It would take 30 years, and advances in DNA technology, to find out who was responsible for the disappearance of Louise Bell.

Supporting audio supplied by ABC South Australia.

CREDITS

Guest: Candice Prosser

Host: Gemma Bath

Executive Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producer: Scott Stronach

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @truecrimeconversations

Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple & Spotify to let us know how you're liking the episodes.

Want us to cover a case on the podcast? Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note.

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1992, career criminal Peter Gibb met prison guard Heather Parker while serving a 12-year sentence at the Melbourne Remand Centre. Heather claimed she didn’t notice Peter at first, but she quickly became smitten, and their relationship developed from flirtatious to physical.

When their affair was exposed, Heather was immediately transferred, with communication between the two forbidden. But they couldn’t be stopped, and with the help of another inmate acting as their middleman, the pair hatched a plan to break Peter out of prison.

Their escape sparked one of Australia's largest criminal pursuits and saw Heather and Peter dubbed Australia’s Bonnie and Clyde.

THE END BITS

Subscribe to Mamamia

CREDITS

Guest: Megan Norris

Host: Claire Murphy

Executive Producer: Gia Moylan

Assistant Producer: Tahli Blackman

Audio Producer: Scott Stronach

GET IN TOUCH:

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @truecrimeconversations

Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple & Spotify to let us know how you're liking the episodes.

Want us to cover a case on the podcast? Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note.

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brenden Abbott, known as The Postcard Bandit, is one of Australia’s most notorious bank robbers and prison escapees. He's the guy who developed the “drop-in heist,” hiding in a bank’s ceiling overnight and dropping down as staff opened the vault.

Abbott continued a crime spree across Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland, robbing banks and avoiding police. Reports claimed he sent postcards to authorities while on the run, earning his infamous nickname.

Today, he remains in Casuarina Prison, having spent more time in solitary confinement than most inmates and serving longer than many murderers.

In this episode, we spoke to his son, James, and retired officer, Glen Porter, about whether it’s time for Abbott to finally be released.

You can watch the BINGE series, RUN, here and The Postcard Bandit from January 7 only on BINGE.

SURVEY

Want to win a $1,000 gift card in just 3 minutes? Fill out this short survey to help True Crime Conversations gather more information on what content you want to hear from us!

CREDITS

Guests: James Abbott and Glen Porter

Host: Claire Murphy

Senior Producer: Tahli Blackman

Group Executive Producer: Ilaria Brophy

Audio Engineer: Jacob Round

GET IN TOUCH

Follow us on Instagram and TikTok @truecrimeconversations

Make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple & Spotify to let us know how you're liking the episodes.

Want us to cover a case on the podcast? Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au or send us a voice note.

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On New Year’s Day 1993, Perth woman Michelle Steck, 24, packed her bags and left her abusive four-year relationship with her violent partner’s words ringing in her ears. “You’re going to pay for your actions for a very long time,” spat Kevin East, 34.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For nearly half a century, Australia was engaged in a shameful and shocking practice that would tear babies from the arms of their mothers, sometimes before they ever even laid eyes on their precious little faces.

Today, Amelia Oberhart shares with us the journey of her discoveries about her mother’s life before she was born in her podcast, Secrets We Keep, Shame, Lies and Family…and in the process of unveiling her own story, found the buried stories of women whose numbers will shock you.

THE END BITS

Subscribe to Mamamia

CREDITS

Guest: Amelia Oberhardt

You can listen to her podcast Secrets We Keep here.

Host: Claire Murphy

Executive Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producer: Scott Stronach

GET IN TOUCH:

Check out our TikTok here.

Feedback? We’re listening! Email us at truecrime@mamamia.com.au

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.