Real Crime with Adam Shand

The alleged attack on Helen Haines has shocked Australia and raised urgent questions about the safety of our elected representatives. How do we protect politicians while keeping them accessible to the communities they serve?

Adam Shand examines the threatening language poisoning public debate and reflects on his own approach to handling vile comments on social media. With the accused’s motive still to be established, thi...

Former police officer Amanda Schultz has spent years questioning the official finding that her father, Detective Inspector Geoffrey “Whit” Whitford, took his own life. The highly respected Whitford was found dead from a gunshot wound at a remote South Australian beach in October 1981. His death was officially ruled a suicide by police without a formal coronial inquest, backed by a sealed 30-year coronial report. Whitfor...

Ivan Milat murdered seven young backpackers in the Belanglo State Forest. But were those his only victims?

Investigative journalist Camille Bianchi joins Adam Shand to discuss her gripping new podcast, Back to the Wall, which explores disturbing allegations linking Australia's most notorious serial killer to the dark underworld of Sydney's Kings Cross. In the 1980s and 1990s, vulnerable streetkids gathered at a place known simply a...

A photograph, a bare wedding finger and a possible message. Adam Shand examines Snezana Wood’s first reported public appearance since her husband Sam was charged with domestic violence offences. Is this a declaration of independence, or are we reading too much into the picture? Beyond the tabloid signals lie serious questions about prosecution, family support and access to justice. Wood denies the allegations, which remain un...

In Part Two of Kyle Madden's story, he returns to jail to find a darker more brutal environment where the old rules are breaking down. He must form strong bonds with jail gangs and fighting for survival becomes the norm. Once free again, it's only a matter of time before he's back inside, especially as his offending becomes more serious and violent. He comes to place no value on life until the loss of his unborn son and he finally ...

A special double episode on the journey of former Sydney criminal Kyle Madden from an underworld heavy to a new life beyond crime. In Part One, Kyle is jailed for a home invasion that results in the shooting of an innocent bystander. After his first stint, jail becomes a revolving door for Kyle as family and personal relationships break down. In custody, Kyle aligns himself with heavy crooks and begins building his criminal network...

When police officer David Raymond walked into the darkness hunting a killer, he often had just one partner besides him, a partner who couldn’t speak but whose instincts David trusted with his life. For 26 years, David worked with police dogs in Far North Queensland. But one dog would come to define his career: Vader, a jet-black German Shepherd who tracked killers, confronted armed offenders, searched for the missing and help...

Long before Roberta Williams became one of the most recognisable names in Melbourne’s gangland story, she was Roberta Merciecaa, a rebellious 15-year-old growing up around Frankston.Lee McIntosh knew her then.

As a youth worker, Lee worked with young people dealing with broken homes, trauma and uncertain futures. She understood them because she had lived through her own family upheaval. But Lee came to Real Crime with a myste...

Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer vanished from Fairy Meadow beach at Wollongong in 1970. A teenager later told police he had abducted and killed her. Decades on, he was charged with murder—but the case ended when a judge ruled that his police interview could not be used at trial. He pleaded not guilty, and no jury reached a verdict. After a tireless campaign  for justice by Cheryl's family, the NSW Director of Public Prosec...

Victoria, with the support of her new partner, Grant, reports that the father of her children has raped and sexually assaulted her. Victoria summons the courage to go through the three-year process that led to his conviction and a 13-year prison sentence. Another woman is inspired to bring charges against the perpetrator for crimes committed against her. Victoria has waived her right to anonymity to tell this story in the hope of e...

Jeff Maher had a stellar career as an investigator, including a 15-year stint as a detective senior sergeant in the Victoria Police homicide squad. His crew worked on some of the most high-profile murder cases in the state’s history, which included locking up a serial killer. Peter Dupas. Jeff also worked in arson and explosives investigations. In this revealing interview, he discusses investigative methods and how he dealt w...

Debbie Fahey’s death in a Melbourne motel room in 1981 was treated as a heroin overdose. But more than four decades later, troubling questions remain.Multiple syringes. Four foils of heroin. No obvious heat source to prepare the drug. And a strange telegram that appeared to explain Debbie’s state of mind.Then there is the man in her life: Alistair Farquhar "Sandy" MacRae — later convicted of four murders — w...

Like thousands of young Australians in the 1980s, Patrick McKenzie became addicted to heroin and found his way to Sydney's King Cross joining a sub-culture of drug users who financed their habit by committing petty crime. It took five days in jail for him to begin to see a life beyond drug addiction but the road to recovery was difficult, including multiple stints in rehab, relapses and the painful restoration of personal relations...

Was Debbie Fahey's death really a murder? In 1981, Deborah “Debbie” Fahey died from a heroin overdose; her death was apparently another tragedy of Melbourne’s drug scene.
But was there more to the story?

In an earlier episode, former detective Noel Ashby identified convicted killer Alistair Farquhar MacRae as a possible suspect in a series of heroin deaths during the 1980s—deaths that may have been ma...

In Part Two of Real Crime: Live at the Stanley Pub, Adam Shand sits down with Daniel Saunders — the man who discovered a glitch in his bank account that seemingly gave him access to unlimited money.

What followed was four months of outrageous spending, new friends, gambling, luxury hotels and a life ...

A special double episode this week, Adam Shand is taking Real Crime on the road with Dan Saunders of The Glitch podcast visiting historic Stanley in northeast Victoria for a live event at the Stanley pub, in association with Turnip Media. In this first episode, Adam tells how he got into crime writing during Melbourne’s gangland war and recounts some of his near-death experiences

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This week I posted about disturbing revelations involving Australia’s Family Court. I was inundated with messages from women who believe the system failed them—and left their children in danger.

In this episode of From the Desk, I examine claims that protective mothers are being ignored, disbelieved, or financially broken by a process they entered to keep their children safe. I ask whether allegations of ab...