Casefile True Crime

*** Content warnings: Violence against women, femicide *** When 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley went missing while walking her dog, her loved ones quickly launched a search at Wangetti Beach near Cairns, where she was last seen. In the early morning hours of October 22 2018, Toyah’s father Troy Cordingley made a devastating discovery: his daughter had been murdered and buried in the sand, at a place where she’d always felt safe. The search for Toyah’s killer gripped Far North Queensland, but the answers to the crime lay much further away… --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-348-toyah-cordingley Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases. When 35-year-old Maria Cruz failed to show up for work on April 14 2003, her colleagues immediately knew something was wrong. A visit to her Manhattan apartment revealed no signs of a struggle and no indication of where she might have gone. As investigators retraced her movements from the day before, they discovered she had attended a medical appointment. But when they tried to contact her doctor, nothing was as it seemed. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Jessica Larsen Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-extra-maria-cruz Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Casefile Revisited features newly re-recorded versions of classic episodes, revisiting the stories with enhanced production, fresh narration, and updated research where possible. When Mosman Park jewellery store owner Pamela Lawrence was late to return home from work on May 23 1994, her husband Peter went to check if everything was okay. There, he found Pamela clinging to life with serious head injuries, which she later succumbed to in the hospital. Despite a lack of physical evidence or any DNA tying him to the crime scene, accused thief Andrew Mallard was soon arrested for Pamela’s murder. But was the hypothetical murder scenario that Mallard described a confession, or did the police have the wrong man? --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Anonymous Host Additional writing & editing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-revisited-pamela-lawrence Pamela Lawrence episode was originally released in May 2016. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases. When 55-year-old Greg Fleniken was found dead inside his hotel room in Beaumont, Texas, nothing about the scene appeared suspicious. There were no signs of forced entry, no obvious wounds, and no indication of a struggle. At first, it seemed Greg had died suddenly from natural causes. But an autopsy revealed something far more troubling. Greg had suffered catastrophic internal injuries, leading investigators to treat his death as a homicide. The problem was that nothing inside Room 348 explained how those injuries had occurred. With no clear suspect, no apparent motive, and a crime scene that made little sense, the case quickly reached a dead end. What had happened inside Room 348? --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Matthew Dawe Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-extra-greg-fleniken Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content warnings: Child abuse, crimes against children, sexual assault *** When 10-year-old Zahra Baker was reported missing by her father and stepmum in Hickory, North Carolina, one Saturday afternoon in 2010, it sparked the largest missing persons investigation in the city's history. Police worked around the clock, hoping for a miracle, but people close to the family said they'd been expecting something like this to happen for a long time. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Emily Shirley Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-347-zahra-baker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content warnings: Child abduction *** When 13-year-old Megumi Yokota failed to return home from her regular badminton practice on November 15 1977, her parents immediately raised the alarm. The police in Niigata, Japan, conducted one of the city’s largest ever investigations, but no trace of Megumi was ever found. Two decades later, the case took a shocking turn that would rock the entire nation of Japan and have geopolitical ramifications… --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-346-megumi-yokota Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, drug use, suicide, homophobia *** Over a 16-month period between 2014 and 2015, four young men—Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor—each died under unusual circumstances in the East London suburb of Barking. While the police initially palmed the deaths off as isolated incidents, the families of the four men believed something suspicious was at play. All of the men had been found near or in a churchyard, all had died from dangerously high levels of GHB, and none had a reason to be in the area. When CCTV footage forced detectives to revisit the evidence, what they uncovered was shocking. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-345-the-barking-murders Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the tense weeks following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, a new and invisible threat emerged across the United States. Letters laced with weaponised anthrax began arriving through the mail, infecting ordinary people and spreading fear nationwide. As the possibility of bioterrorism gripped the country, a massive federal investigation codenamed Amerithrax was launched to uncover who was behind the attacks… --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-344-amerithrax Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content warnings: Child victims, sexual assault *** On February 28 1976, the suburban community of Hales Corners, Wisconsin, was rocked when the body of missing schoolboy, 14-year-old John Zera, was discovered in a local park. The teenager hadn’t been seen for over a week, having gone missing in the middle of the school day without so much as a word. Over the next few years, the investigation into John’s brutal murder was plagued by mistakes and misconduct before eventually going cold. Thirty years later, the case was resurrected after police discovered a chilling scene. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Brianne Jaskulski Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-343-john-zera Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When 52-year-old Julia Wallace was found brutally murdered in her Liverpool home in 1931, no one could have anticipated the complex and challenging investigation that would follow, centring on her husband, William, and a mysterious figure known only as R. M. Qualtrough. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-342-julia-wallace Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content warning: Child sexual abuse *** Late in 1991, a child said something strange to his mother: ‘I don’t like Peter’s black penis.’ Believing this was an indication that her son was being abused by Peter Ellis, a 33-year-old employee at the Christchurch Civic Creche her son attended, the concerned mother quickly filed a report. The case would soon snowball into one of New Zealand’s biggest and most controversial criminal cases… --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-341-the-christchurch-civic-creche Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content warning: Sexual assault *** When 22-year-old aspiring journalist Elisabeth Membrey failed to answer her phone on December 7 1994, her loved ones knew something was wrong. A visit to her Ringwood East unit confirmed their suspicions when blood stains were found on the carpet, but Elisabeth herself was nowhere to be seen. With Elisabeth’s disappearance declared to be a homicide, her parents, Roger and Joy Membrey, refused to give up the search for answers. But with one twist after another, they could never have anticipated the journey that lay ahead. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-340-elisabeth-membrey Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content Warning: gun violence *** When Larry Phillips Junior and Emil Mătăsăreanu entered the North Hollywood branch of the Bank of America on February 28 1997, no one could have predicted the chaos that was about to ensue. What followed was 44 minutes of pure mayhem. --- Casefile Archives is a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete rewrites - our goal wasn’t to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn’t have when we started the show back in 2016. Where appropriate, updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remain faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Anonymous Host & Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-archives-11-north-hollywood-shootout Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Friday, August 20 2010, officers from the Holmes County Sheriff's Department were called to Vortex Spring, a commercially operated dive park just outside the Florida town of Ponce de Leon. A 30-year-old scuba diver from Tennessee by the name of Ben McDaniel had failed to resurface after diving into the narrow cave network under the basin of the spring two nights earlier, and nobody had seen or heard from him since. When a recovery mission failed to find any sign of Ben, his loved ones and members of the cave diving community were left in shock. Was Ben stuck in an unexplored part of the cave somewhere, or was something else entirely at play? --- Casefile Archives is a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete rewrites - our goal wasn’t to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn’t have when we started the show back in 2016. Where appropriate, updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remain faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-archives-10-ben-mcdaniel Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content Warning: serial killer, extreme violence *** In early 1993, Frankston resident Donna received a series of unnerving prank calls. Afraid of being home alone, she accompanied her boyfriend during his pizza delivery shift, only to return home to find her worst fears had come true. Her pet cats had been killed, and written in blood on the lounge room wall were the words: ‘Donna, you’re dead.’ This marked the beginning of a five-month crime spree that terrorised locals and resulted in the murders of three young women – Elizabeth Stevens, Deborah Fream and Natalie Russell. The perpetrator was dubbed ‘The Frankston Serial Killer’, but who was he, and when would he strike again? --- Casefile Archives is a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete rewrites - our goal wasn’t to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn’t have when we started the show back in 2016. Where appropriate, updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remain faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Anonymous Host Additional writing & editing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-archives-9-the-frankston-serial-killer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 3 of 3] *** Content warning: Gun violence, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, child abuse *** The standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidians held firm for more than a month, with David Koresh and his followers refusing to surrender. After attempting both negotiation tactics and more aggressive approaches for 51 days, the FBI implements a plan to force the Branch Davidians out, a plan that will have devastating consequences and will change the face of the United States forever. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-339-waco-part-3-3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 2 of 3] *** Content warning: Gun violence, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, child abuse *** In 1992, a chance discovery by a UPS delivery driver would lead to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – commonly known as the ATF – launching an investigation into David Koresh’s activities at Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas. Upon discovering that Koresh’s Branch Davidians were stockpiling illegal weapons, the agency began planning a raid that was also intended to boost their image with the public… but the consequences would be disastrous. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-339-waco-part-2-3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 1 of 3] *** Content warning: Gun violence, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, child abuse *** In 1981, a 20-year-old named Vernon Howell drove more than two hours from his hometown in east Texas to visit a church near Waco that was home to a group known as the Branch Davidians. Vernon would be welcomed into the church’s fold, setting off a course of events that would ultimately end in tragedy and permanently alter the United States of America. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-339-waco-part-1-3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 2 of 2] *** Content warning: child victims *** As police looked into the deaths of Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura Folbigg, they were introduced to Meadows Law – the theory that one infant death is a tragedy, two is suspicious, but three is murder. With suspicion mounting against Kathleen Folbigg, years of investigation eventually led to a legal outcome that no one could have ever seen coming. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-338-the-folbigg-children-part-2-2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 1 of 2] *** Content warning: child victims *** Married couple Craig and Kathleen Folbigg wanted nothing more than to be parents. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, Kathleen gave birth to four children—Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura—but tragically, none of them survived past their second birthdays. While each death was initially attributed to natural causes, the question started to emerge – had Kathleen done something to harm her children? --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Elsha McGill Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-338-the-folbigg-children-part-1-2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 4 of 4] *** Content warning: child victims *** As police closed in on the elusive B.T.K, they received a floppy disk that contained some stunning information – including the name: Dennis... --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-337-test-a-rtf-part-4-4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 3 of 4] *** Content warning: child victims *** B.T.K resumed his cat-and-mouse game with police, who raced to identify and capture the serial killer before he could strike again… --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-337-test-a-rtf-part-3-4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 2 of 4] *** Content warning: child victims *** After claiming seven victims and terrorising Wichita for nearly three decades, the unidentified killer known as B.T.K. suddenly fell silent. Then, in 2004, a letter bearing his unmistakable signature arrived at a local newspaper… --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-337-test-a-rtf-part-2-4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 1 of 4] *** Content warning: child victims *** The quiet suburban life of Wichita, Kansas, was shattered in 1974 when four members of the Otero family, Joe, Julie and their two youngest children, Josie and Joey, were found brutally murdered in their home. Nine months later, a letter was discovered inside a public library book that contained detailed, accurate, insider-knowledge about the crime. Worse still, the writer claimed responsibility for the murders and threatened to kill again. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Milly Raso Production & music – Mike Migas Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-337-test-a-rtf-part-1-4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*** Content Warning: Child victims*** On September 15 2006, detectives began investigating the sexual assault of 24-year-old Tiffany Hall from East St. Louis, Illinois. The assault had caused Tiffany to miscarry her 7-month old foetus. A week later, police received a tip-off that would break the case wide open, revealing unimaginable horrors that devastated a family and an entire community. --- Casefile Archives is a series of special bonus releases revisiting the earliest years of the show. The re-run episodes have been completely edited, polished, re-recorded and freshly produced from start to finish to match our current production standards. They are not complete rewrites - our goal wasn’t to alter the cases or reshape the writing, but to preserve the original storytelling while giving the production the refinement it didn’t have when we started the show back in 2016. Where appropriate, updates have been added, but the core structure and storytelling remain faithful to the originals. Because of this, these re-releases may sound a little different to our recent episodes, but they allow us to bring some of the earliest episodes up to the technical quality listeners expect today. --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Holly Boyd Production & music – Mike Migas Music - Andrew D.B. Joslyn Audio editing – Anthony Telfer Sign up for Casefile Premium: Apple Premium Spotify Premium Patreon For all credits and sources, please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/casefile-archives-8-the-tunstall-family Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.