Cold Case Australia

It was Christmas Eve and Kevin Showalter just wanted to get home. But first, he had to deal with the flat tyre. Showalter was a 20-year-old college student, and he and his girlfriend Debra Emilyta were just two blocks from home when she blew out her tyre. Frustrated, as it was past 11pm, she pulled… Continue reading Kevin Showalter hit-and-run: Botched investigation or malicious cover-up?

Doctor Sneha Anne Philip is officially a hero. She was in her third year of a residency at St Vincent’s Hospital on Staten Island, New York, when she disappeared. Her days were filled with tireless work, her evenings often spent drinking with assorted friends at pubs near her home, two blocks from the World Trade… Continue reading Sneha Philip: Did this doctor use the cover of 9/11 to disappear?

It has been close to a quarter of a century since they found his body, but to this day nobody knows the identity of the man tied to a crucifix and cruelly dumped in the Hawkesbury River to die. Next week marks 24 years since one of Australia’s most gruesome and baffling discoveries. A crew… Continue reading Who is the mystery man found in the Hawkesbury, tied to a crucifix?

Like a number of Aussie kids in the early ‘90s, 12-year-old Rhianna Barreau had an overseas penpal. She had built up quite a bond with her American correspondent, and wanted to buy her a Christmas card. It was only October, but this was 1992, and international post was slower in those days. Her mother Paula… Continue reading Twenty-six-years later, SA girl Rhianna Barreau remains missing

Tony Jones had only stopped back into Townsville for a quick pub meal. He was hitchhiking around Australia on a six-month working holiday, and was on the home stretch. From Townsville, he planned to hike 90 minutes to Charters Towers where he would crash, before waking the next day and heading to Mount Isa to… Continue reading The heroic bush cop and the murdered hitchhiker

At 7am on the dot, Frank Newbery walked downstairs from his flat and opened the door to his convenience store, swinging the sign on the window over, and settling in behind the counter, its old-fashioned cash register as much a fixture as old Frank. It was the same morning routine the 87-year-old had followed every… Continue reading The daytime slaying of Newcastle’s 87-year-old ‘gentleman grocer’

The acclaim that journalist Susan Walsh was getting for her latest Village Voice piece was beginning to make her feel unsettled. The article was an exposé into a strip joint ring, and alleged that members of the Russian mob were exploiting young female immigrants, forcing them into sex work. Walsh, 36, had worked as an… Continue reading The Village Voice journalist who took on a strip club ring, then disappeared

It wasn’t like 27-year-old Jodi Huisentruit not to show up for work on time. A popular TV news anchor, Huisentruit was due at work at 4am on the morning of June 27, 1995, in order to get her hair and makeup done, before preparing the morning news at 6. KIMT producer Amy Kuns called her… Continue reading What happened to missing newsreader Jodi Huisentruit?

Cindy Song was set to graduate from Penn State University in a few short months. She was studious, having moved from South Korea to America when she was 15, in order to further her schooling. Therefore, she didn’t usually go out midweek. October 31, 2001 was an exception, however, being Halloween. Song put together a… Continue reading Who abducted Cindy Song? The Halloween bunny who disappeared into the night

When Robin Graham’s Dodge ran out of petrol on the Hollywood Freeway early on a Sunday morning, she’d been driving for less than 10 minutes. Graham had been out partying all night with a group of college friends and had gotten a lift to her car, which was parked at her workplace. Her car stalled… Continue reading Robin Graham disappearance: A chilling Hollywood mystery