Casefile True Crime

[Part 1 of 4] During the 1960s, California saw a wave of senseless, unsolved slayings. Cab driver Ray Davis was murdered in cold blood after an anonymous killer warned of his intentions. Two young couples – Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards, and Johnny and Joyce Swindle – were gunned down in separate yet similar attacks.

[Part 2 of 4] On December 20 1968, teenagers David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were gunned down in the middle of the night on a deserted road in Benicia, California. Six months later, another young couple, Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau, were shot in a parking lot in nearby Vallejo. When an anonymous caller informed the police that he’d committed both attacks, the hunt was on.

[Part 3 of 4] On September 27 1969, friends Cecelia Shepard and Bryan Hartnell were relaxing at Lake Berryessa, California, when their afternoon was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a menacing figure. His face was concealed by a black hood, painted with a crosshair symbol. The man unleashed a brutal attack on the pair before fleeing the scene.

[Part 4 of 4] On March 22 1970, 22-year-old Kathleen Johns suffered a terrifying encounter when her car broke down on a California highway. Was it possible she’d encountered the Zodiac Killer?

When 22-year-old Janet Chandler was abducted while working the night shift at the Blue Mill Inn on January 31 1979, her disappearance appeared to be part of a robbery...

On Saturday, February 23 1957, 11-year-old Moira Anderson set out in a blizzard to run a quick errand. When she failed to return home, locals in her hometown of Coatbridge, Scotland began searching the area for any sign of her...

On January 26 2005, 25-year-old Juan Alvarez parked his car on a railway line in Glendale, Los Angeles, causing an explosive train crash that killed and injured dozens of commuters. Alvarez, plagued by family troubles and a difficult past, claimed it was an accident but those who witnessed the crash said otherwise. Was Alvarez an innocent victim or a calculating killer?

On March 9 2001, 43-year-old computer engineer Bernd Brandes disappeared from his home in Berlin, Germany. Although his absence was extremely out of character, investigations into his whereabouts proved unsuccessful...

On Tuesday, July 27 1976, 16-year-old Candra Torres and a man named Tom Brown showed up in an Oregon sheriff’s department to report a terrible incident. Candra’s husband, 21-year-old Julio Torres, had been accidentally shot and killed while the three were on a camping trip deep in Mount Hood National Forest...

In early January 1977, residents of Easey Street in Melbourne’s inner-city suburb of Collingwood noticed they hadn’t seen the tenants at number 147 for several days...

In 2018, American missionary John Chau sailed out to North Sentinel, a forested island off the coast of India. He intended to spread the word of God to the Sentinelese, a small population of indigenous people considered the most remote tribe in the world. Yet, the Sentinelese have made it very clear to outsiders that they desire isolation above all else.

When Swedish backpackers Urban Höglin and Heidi Paakkonen go missing during a camping trip around New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula, concerns are quickly raised that the newly engaged couple could have fallen victim to foul play. Worries increase once it’s discovered that convicted killer, David Tamihere, was on the loose in the area at the time, having jumped bail on a rape charge.

On March 11, 2011, two employees of the Lululemon Athletica yoga store in Bethesda, Maryland fell victim to a brutal attack carried out by two masked men. 30-year-old Jayna Murray was murdered, while 28-year-old Brittany Norwood survived the ordeal which included sexual assault, torture, repeated stabbings and burglary.

When Omaha mechanic Dave Kroupa met Cari Farver in late 2012, he thought he’d found the perfect woman. Unfortunately, their relationship soon turned sour and when Dave ended things, Cari began to obsessively stalk him, turning his life into a living nightmare...

On December 21 1924, itinerant beggar, Vincenz Olivier, knocked on the door of an apartment building on the outskirts of Münsterberg in Weimar, Germany. Father Denke, the elderly man who answered the door, gladly offered Vincenz 20 pfennigs to help him write a letter to his brother. Vincenz accepted and was welcomed into Father Denke’s home...

It was around 2:30 am on Sunday, December 18 1994, when a group of friends stumbled across the bloody and brutalised body of a young woman, lying in the middle of a road in Gqeberha, South Africa. She was the latest victim of Frans Du Toit and Theuns Kruger; two men who the press would come to dub The Noordhoek ‘Ripper Rapists’.

*** Warning: This case involves a child victim *** When the body of four-year-old Kevin Hjalmarsson was found floating on a wooden pallet in Sweden’s Kyrkviken bay, police determined that it wasn’t a tragic drowning, but a cold-blooded murder.

*** Warning: This case involves a child victim *** On May 26 1978, four-year-old Eric Christgen suddenly disappeared while playing in a park in St Joseph, Missouri. The next day, his body was discovered near the Missouri River, sparking a manhunt like the small town had never seen before.

Eliahu Itzkovitz spent much of his childhood confined behind the walls of Romania’s Chișinău Ghetto – a place where he and other Romanian Jews were held prisoner by their government...

In March 1998, members of the Cat Protection Society in Brisbane, Australia were shocked at the murder of one of their own, a 52-year-old Veterinarian named Dr Kathleen Marshall. An outspoken crusader for animal rights, Kathleen seemed an unlikely target for such a brutal assault...

[Part 1 of 2] At the height of World War Two in London, a serial killer roamed the streets. In just one week in February 1942, he killed four women and attempted to kill others, taking them by surprise at night during the enforced blackout periods.

[Part 2 of 2] In Berlin, Germany at the height of World War Two, a man took advantage of the Blackout orders at night to frighten and assault women in an isolated garden colony. Soon, he progressed to attacking and killing women on the S-Bahn train by throwing them from the carriage door while the train was in motion.

Hey Casefile fans! In support of Missing Persons Week, I’ve accepted a challenge to record 145 personalised messages for the first 145 listeners to secure their spot. Why this many? Because on average, 145 Australians are reported missing every single day. Whether you know a Casefile fan with an upcoming birthday or just looking to change your voicemail? Get creative! Spots will open at 8 am Australian Eastern Standard Time on Sunday 31st of July, and close on Saturday 6th of August, unless sold out prior. 100% of the proceeds will go to Missing Persons Advocacy Network (MPAN); an Australian charity creating awareness for missing persons and providing support to their families and friends. Go to mpan.com.au/customcasey and I’ll look forward to speaking to you, personally, soon.

Dr John Schneeberger’s charming and gentle manner made him a popular and trusted figure in the tiny Canadian town of Kipling. So when a young woman named Candice accused him of raping her in 1992, most townsfolk were left shocked and found the allegation impossible to believe.

When the bodies of British tourists 23-year-old Hannah Witheridge and 24-year-old David Miller were found brutally murdered on the remote Thai island of Koh Tao, the police immediately concluded that the killer had to be a foreigner, as a Thai person couldn’t be capable of such brutality.

In May 1975, 45-year-old Frank Hilley began experiencing severe nausea, vomiting and stomach cramps in his home in Anniston, Alabama. He died just over a week later. Soon after, his wife Marie Hilley began to receive threatening phone calls, messages and damage to her property. When her teenage Carol Hilley began to show the same symptoms as her late father, Marie flew into a panic trying to get to the bottom of what was happening.

In 1996, Karina Holmer left her small Swedish village of Skillingaryd to travel to Boston, Massachusetts. The 19-year-old had plans to work as an au pair with an American family who lived in an affluent neighbourhood called Dover. Karina settled in well with her host family: married couple Frank Rapp and Susan Nichter and their two young children. But just three months after arriving in Dover, Karina suddenly disappeared after a night out with friends...

*** Warning: This case involves a child victim *** When Czech Republic man Eduard Trdý inadvertently intercepted the video feed of his neighbour’s security camera in May 2007, he was so alarmed by the footage that he contacted the police...

On October 24 1953, 15-year-old Evelyn Hartley set out for a babysitting job in her neighbourhood of La Crosse, Wisconsin. When she didn’t call her parents at 8.30 pm as promised, Evelyn’s father raced to the house to check on her...

Semper Fidelis – which means ‘Always Faithful’ is the motto of the United States Marine Corps and a nod to the tight-knit culture the corps is known for. At the Parris Island recruit depot in South Carolina, new recruits undergo a gruelling 13-week training program that determines whether they will become Marines.

In 2003, 12 elderly women were killed in their homes in Mexico City. Most were strangled and robbed. Fears arose that a serial killer was on the loose, with the media dubbing the perpetrator‘El Mataviejitas’- The Little Old Lady Killer. Police initially dismissed the serial killer notion, until the victim count continued to rise and the evidence became too strong to ignore.

The weekend of December 16 2000 was shaping up to be a good one for Tallahassee man Mike Williams. With a romantic getaway planned to celebrate his sixth wedding anniversary to his wife Denise, Mike got up early to sneak in a couple hours of duck hunting on Lake Seminole. When he failed to return home, Denise quickly raised the alarm.