Dead Bodies Podcast - podcast cover

Dead Bodies Podcast

Dead Bodies Podcastsoundcloud.com
Have you ever seen a dead body? People find dead bodies everywhere, under floorboards, inside chimneys, and in their homes. They’re at crime scenes, disaster scenes and in morgues. There have been dead bodies on the red carpet, in cannibals’ dens, and even advertised in the classifieds. In this series, experienced crime and court reporter Sharnelle Vella, and veteran radio host Dee Dee Dunleavy look at where dead bodies have been found, how they got there, and most importantly, the effect on people who found them. We talk to people who deal with death daily as part of their jobs, and people who weren’t prepared for the shock of finding a dead body. Please subscribe and rate us on Itunes
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Episodes

Bonus: Sharnelle and Dee Dee on 'The Boy In The Gold Mine'

While Dead Bodies is on pause for the moment, we are pleased to share a project that Dee Dee has been working on for the last 18 months. It's a true crime investigation into the disappearance of 12-year-old Terry Floyd in Avoca, Victoria, Australia, in 1975. The trailer is available now, and the first three episodes launch on Monday, May 5. In this bonus episode, Sharnelle and Dee Dee discuss her work on this intriguing cold case with former Homicide Detective Charlie Bezzina, and Daryl Floyd, w...

May 02, 202513 min

Ep 147 - Ding Dong Ditch

Ding Dong Ditch is a harmless prank that teenagers play. Ring the doorbell and run away. It was not so harmless, though, for a group of teens in Southern California in 2020, when the homeowner they pranked turned predator.

Jul 08, 202428 min

Ep 146 - Eaten Alive

In June, 2024, a woman was found dead inside the belly of a snake in central Indonesia. We look at some of the more bizarre deadly snake cases, as well as a man who tried to be swallowed alive by an anaconda.

Jul 01, 202443 min

Ep 144 - Alvin Ridley

Alvin Ridley was an eccentric, often combative TV repairman in the town of Ringgold, Georgia in the US, who became reclusive and paranoid after his business closed. Suspicious eyes fell upon him when he reported a woman - who he said was his wife - dead in his home. Lawyer McCracken Poston took on the job of defending him in a murder case that everyone said could not be won.

Jun 16, 202447 min

Ep 143 - Velma Barfield

Australia, has been abuzz with discussion about the deaths of three people in Victoria, apparently after eating poison mushrooms. In this episode we look at serial poisoner Velma Barfield, who in 1984 became the first woman to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

Oct 16, 202336 min

Ep 142 - Katie Haley

29-year-old Katie Haley was bashed to death with a dumbbell by her vicious, jealous and controlling partner Shane Robertson, while their baby daughter slept in the room next door. Katie’s sad end serves as another reminder that we need to do more as a community to stamp out domestic violence.

Oct 09, 202341 min

Ep 141 - Boiled To Death

A new-age health and wellness workshop went horribly wrong in Quebec, Canada, in 2011, when 38-year-old Chantal Lavigne was literally boiled to death in a bizarre therapy session.

Oct 02, 202340 min

Ep 140 - Lucy Letby

Babies sent to the neonatal intensive care unit are usually the most vulnerable, and in need of the greatest care. But instead of nursing them back to health, British nurse Lucy Letby was doing the unthinkable: attacking and killing them.

Sep 25, 202341 min

Ep 139 - The Eye Drops

In 2018 Lana Clayton found her husband Steve lying dead at the bottom of the stairs in their home in South Carolina. At first it was believed he’d had a heart attack, but when toxicology showed the presence of poison, police were led to something common in most household bathrooms.

Sep 18, 202347 min

Ep 138 - Plane Crash In The Andes

Survivors of a plane crash in the Andes in 1972 had to use great ingenuity to stay alive in the blizzard conditions, with very little food, and as the days passed it seemed nobody was coming to rescue them.

Mar 13, 202326 min

Ep 137 - Garry Hoy

Lawyer Garry Hoy fell to his death from a window on the 24th floor of a Toronto law firm in 1993. Was it suicide, was he pushed, or was there another reason behind his tragic death?

Feb 27, 202323 min

Ep 136 - The Brain Bank Murder

In the UK in 2016, Ian Stewart’s fiancee Helen Bailey goes missing. The investigation into her disappearance leads police to take another look at the death of his first wife Diane. They fear they have hit a dead end when they discover that Diane’s body was cremated.

Feb 13, 202337 min

Ep 135 - Renea Lau

The murder of pastry chef Renea Lau in Melbourne's Kings Domain has been described as one of the city's worst. Senior police were shocked by the brutality and duration of the attack and because of its random nature.

Jan 30, 202328 min

Ep 134 - Crash Test Dummies, and Where’s Kirsten?

Worldwide, around 1.35 million people die in road accidents each year. Research to make road travel safer is constant, as new technology and design emerge. Crash Test Dummies are used for most of the testing. But that hasn’t always been the case. Kirsten is missing, and we welcome Simon Owens to the studio today in her place. Join our massive tantrum over her (hopefully temporary) disappearance.

Jan 16, 202344 min

Ep 133 - Adrian Bayley: Part Two, and the cult of Thawee Nanra

Sharnelle continues recounting covering the 2013 trial of Adrian Bayley who was convicted of the rape and murder of Gillian Maher in Melbourne. Thawee Nanra was the leader of a Taiwanese cult. His devotees promised his followers they could cure their ills by consuming his bodily fluids. And that’s not the worst of it …..

Sep 19, 202250 min

Ep 132 - Lake Mead, and Adrian Bayley: Part One

Drought has seen Nevada’s Lake Mead drop to historic lows, exposing things which have remained underwater for years. In one case, a discovery on the lake bed brought closure to a family after years of heartache. Convicted rapist Adrian Bayley is responsible for the rape and murder of Gillian Meagher, in a case that brought the people of Melbourne to the streets in 2012. Sharnelle covered his court case.

Sep 05, 202258 min

Ep 131 - Lobster Boy, and Phoenix Netts

Grady Stiles Jr. was not only a killer, but a murder victim. He became famous as Lobster Boy in a bizarre travelling sideshow. While most of the world was confined to their homes at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, UK police were called to investigate a car being driven erratically near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, leading to the uncovering of the murder of Phoenix Netts.

May 23, 20221 hr 5 min

Ep 130 - Elmer McCurdy, and Stephen Searle

Elmer McCurdy was a drunk and a train robber. It was decades after his death that his body was discovered at an amusement park in California. If you had committed a murder, would you consider yourself to be violent? Would you be chummy with the police when they arrived on your doorstep? Some killers behave differently, as evidenced by the odd behaviour of wife killer Stephen Searle.

May 02, 202247 min

Ep 128 - Roger Dean, and The Messiest Execution

Nurse Roger Dean was working in a Sydney nursing when he murdered 11 elderly residents by setting a fire to the facility as they slept on November 18, 2011. Allen Lee Davis was sent to the electric chair for brutally killing a mother and her two young daughters. His botched execution is known as Florida’s messiest ever.

Feb 07, 202252 min

Ep 127 - David Fuller, and Marvallous Keene

In this special Christmas episode we cover the 1992 “Christmas killings” in Dayton, Ohio. Marvallos Keene was the head of a gang that murdered six people. Hospital worker David Fuller pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells back in 1987. And when police raided his home they found a stash of pornography described as “unimaginable sexual depravity” that led to investigators uncovering his years of necrophilia.

Dec 20, 202158 min

Ep 126 - Harold Shipman, Sylvia Likens

Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner who is believed to be one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history. On 31 January 2000, he was found guilty of the murder of 15 patients under his care; his total number of victims was approximately 250. Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment with the recommendation that he never be released.[4] He died by suicide, hanging himself in his cell ...

Sep 13, 202144 min

Ep 125 - Bobbie Jo Stinnett, and Martin van Butchell

The body of pregnant Bobbie Jo Stinnett was found in her home in Missouri in 2004. Her unborn foetus had been cut from her womb. The killer, Lisa Marie Montgomery, was put to death by lethal injection in January 2021. Martin van Butchell was an eccentric British dentist who put his dead wife on display. Was it for love, to attract customers, or because of a clause in a marriage contract?

Aug 30, 202142 min

Ep 124 - Candace Newmaker, and Sharnelle in Quarantine

Ten-year-old Candace Newmaker was killed during a bizarre therapy session designed to help her bond with her adoptive mother. She was suffocated by so-called therapists who were trying to force her to be “reborn”. We find Sharnelle in hotel quarantine after her stint reporting from Japan. She shares what makes her embarrassed daily as her meals are delivered.

Aug 16, 202148 min

Ep 123 - Owen Pellow and Death on the Stairs

How would you behave if your partner had just been stabbed multiple times, and the police came knocking on your door? We share the police bodycam footage that captured the odd behaviour of killer Owen Pellow. In a recent episode we looked at deaths on elevators and escalators. Now we’re making sure you never leave the ground floor, looking at deaths on stairs and in stairwells!

Jul 26, 202148 min

Ep 122 - Tia Sharp, Brooke’s Uncle John

12-year-old Tia Sharp went shopping in August 2012 in New Addington, London, England, and it was weeks before her body was found in the roof of her grandmother’s home. Suspicion fell upon the partner of Tia’s grandmother, Stuart Hazell. We share a story from listener Brooke who found her Uncle John’s dead body.

Jul 12, 202144 min

Ep 121 - The BTK Killer Dennis Rader

“BTK” stands for “bind, torture, kill”: Dennis Lyn Rader gave himself the title. Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in Wichita and Park City, Kansas, and sent taunting letters to police and newspapers describing the details of his crimes. It was 2005 before he was arrested and jailed for life. In this episode we hear excerpts from his police interviews.

Jun 28, 202157 min

Ep 120 - Sef Gonzales

Sef Gonzales was found guilty of murdering his father Teodoro "Teddy" Gonzales, his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales, and his sister Clodine Gonzales, in Sydney, Australia, in 2001. He’s serving three concurrent life sentences, but continues to profess his innocence.

Jun 14, 202145 min

Ep 119 - Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson.

In 1971, Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson went missing on their way to an end of school year party in South Dakota in the US. It was 42 years before the mystery of their disappearance was finally solved.

May 24, 202133 min

Ep 118 - The Loch Ard, and the Kobe Bryant Law

More than 50 passengers drowned when the Loch Ard ran aground in Victoria in 1978. But those weren’t the only deaths along the same rugged Port Campbell coastline. In 1970, four dead bodies were found in a car that had gone over the cliff. The tragic death of basketballer Kobe Bryant led to the introduction of a new law, banning photos of the dead by first responders.

May 10, 202151 min
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