Real Crime with Adam Shand

In 2008, Melbourne man Fred Boyle was convicted of murdering his wife Edwina in October 1983 — then keeping her body sealed inside a 44-gallon drum for 23 years, moving it with him from house to house as he raised their two daughters.

Tracey Franze knew Edwina through a shared love of horses in the late 1970s. She watched Fred's cruelty up close — towards animals, towards the truth and ultimately towards the woman who d...

In June 1980, Maria James was stabbed 68 times in her Thornbury bookstore. Her killer was never charged. For years, investigators and a high-profile podcast pointed the finger at local parish priest Father Anthony Bonjourno — but Phil Cleary has always believed the real killer was someone else entirely.

Phil Cleary is no stranger to violent crime. In 1987, his sister Vicki was murdered by her ex-partner Peter Raymond Keogh. A...

Kay Docherty was 15 years old when she vanished on July 1979. She'd told her mum she was going to babysit at a friend's place. Her twin brother Kevin was supposed to pick her up at nine. He never got the chance.

Forty-six years later, her twin brother Kevin Docherty, is still searching for answers — and still fighting to be heard. Adam talks to Kevin Docherty about the night Kay disappeared, the letters that were never proper...

****Content Warning:****

This episode contains discussion of the abduction, sexual assault and murder of children. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

In August 1973, two girls vanished from Adelaide Oval at a Saturday afternoon football match. Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirsty Gordon, 4, walked to the toilet at 3:45pm and were never seen again.

For decades, the prime suspect was Errol Ra...

Mark "Hammer" Dixon spent years on the road with Roger Rogerson and Mark "Chopper" Reed — working security, collecting debts and sharing hotel rooms in outback Queensland. And in that time, Rogerson said things he probably shouldn't have.

He told Dixon the two men convicted of the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing — which killed 15 people — were innocent. That he'd written them up. He hinted that Donald McKay's bo...

Adam Shand sits down with author Michael Madigan to discuss his book Father Teacher Child Killer, the chilling account of Dieter Pfennig, the South Australian man now serving life for the murders of 10-year-olds Louise Bell and Michael Black.

Louise Bell vanished from her bedroom in Hackham West on the night of January 3rd, 1983 — taken without a sound while her younger sister slept beside her. Six years later, Michael Black ...

Join host Adam Shand in this episode of Real Crime as he delves into the ongoing quest for justice in the tragic case of Cheryl Grimmer, featuring an update from her brother, Ricky Nash. After years of fighting for recognition, the New South Wales DPP has agreed to review the admissibility of critical confessions made in the 1971 case.

In this discussion, Ricky shares the emotional toll of seeking justice for his sister and reflect...

In November 2005, 18-year-old Lauren Huxley was at home alone in Sydney when her life was changed forever. Randomly targeted by violent offender Robert Black Farmer — Lauren was brutally attacked, bound, beaten, doused in petrol and left for dead as her family home was set alight.

It was a crime that shocked Australia. Against all odds, Lauren survived. ...

In this episode of Real Crime with Adam Shand, Adam sits down with Peter and Belinda Bates — a couple whose love story began behind prison walls and whose shared mission now is to stop the cycle of violence before it destroys more lives.

Raised in a home defined by extreme domestic violence, coercion and control, Peter grew up believing brutality was str...

In April 1995, Australia’s richest man, Kerry Packer, reported that 285 kilograms of gold bullion had been stolen from a safe inside his Sydney office. It was the largest gold theft in Australian history — a brazen break-in that appeared to be the work of a master safecracker who slipped past 24-hour security without a trace.

But what if the robbery w...

In this episode of Real Crime with Adam Shand, Adam sits down with recently retired Queensland Police Chief Inspector Corey Allen — a cop who never quite fit the mould.

As a teenager, Corey dreamed of becoming a writer. Instead, he spent nearly four decades inside the Queensland Police Service — stretching himself (literally and figuratively) to get in...

In 1987, Vicki Cleary was murdered by her ex-partner, Peter Keogh.

In the first part of this series, Adam spoke with her brother Phil about the legal battle that followed — and the fight to abolish the provocation defence that allowed Keogh to serve just three years and eleven months for her killing. In this second part, Adam sits down with Vicki’s youn...

In this first episode of a two-part series, Real Crime with Adam Shand examines the deadly risks women face when leaving violent relationships.

Adam speaks with former federal MP and long-time advocate Phil Cleary about the 1987 murder of his sister, Vicki Cleary, by her ex-partner — a killing that exposed deep flaws in Australia’s legal system, including the now-abolished provocation defence that reduced her killer&rsq...

In the 1970s and ’80s, Victoria was in the grip of an armed robbery epidemic. Banks, newsagents and small businesses were hit daily. Gunmen didn’t hesitate. Police were targets. And the Armed Robbery Squad was on the front line.

In this episode of Real Crime, Adam Shand sits down with former Victoria Police detective Rod Porter, a proud member of the Ar...

The disappearance of three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer from Fairy Meadow Beach in 1970 has haunted Australia for more than five decades. But the impact of that crime didn’t stop on the sand dunes that day — it rippled through generations of one family.

In this episode of Real Crime, Adam Shand speaks with Melanie G...

On July 28, 1992, a meticulously planned armed robbery at Melbourne Airport ended in bloodshed.
More than a million dollars was stolen from an Ansett Freight terminal — but the gang never made their escape.

In this episode of Real Crime with Adam Shand, Adam speaks exclusively with Steve...

Between the ages of 13 and 27, Dean King didn’t spend a single full year out of jail. A hardened criminal shaped by violence, addiction and the prison system, he was destined to die behind bars — until one explosive moment in rehab changed everything.

Dean recounts the day the floodgates finally opened, forcing him to confront decades of buried pain &...

In this episode of Real Crime with Adam Shand, Adam sits down with Lewis Mbwela, an Iboga practitioner trained in the traditional West African medicine used for centuries by the Bwiti people. Unlike clinical Ibogaine treatments now appearing in the West, this experience involves the full Iboga root — a powerful plant medicine said to confront trauma a...

In March 1982, Daphne Enid Sansbury’s body was found at Victoria Park Racecourse in Adelaide. No one was ever held accountable. More than forty years later, her children and grandchildren are still living with the trauma of her death — and of a system that took her children, silenced her voice and failed to deliver justice.

Through intimate family tes...