Casefile True Crime

*** Content warnings: Animal cruelty, gun violence *** 43-year-old Graham Backhouse lived a peaceful life with his wife and children on Widden Hill Farm in Horton, England. But in 1984, a campaign of...

When Dutch friends Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon set out for a six-week adventure in Panama in 2014, they were ready for the trip of a lifetime. But after failing to show up for a planned tour in the...

*** Content warnings: Child victim, sexual assault *** In 2004, several young girls around Fort Wayne, Indiana received handwritten letters threatening that they would be the next victim of a child k...

*** Content warnings: Racial violence, sexual assault *** In June of 2020, London social worker Bibaa Henry decided to celebrate her 46th birthday with a picnic at scenic Fryent Country Park. Celebr...

*** Content warnings: Animal cruelty *** On a hot summer’s day in 1989, a father and son travelling through Stockton, California, discover a VHS tape left by the side of a road. When they take it ho...

In early January 2000, residents of Asheville, North Carolina were told to be on the lookout for 18-year-old Zebb Quinn after he failed to return home after finishing his shift at Wal-Mart. A co-worke...

*** Content warnings: Child victim, sexual assault *** [Part 2 of 2] Colin Ross maintained his innocence for the murder of Alma Tirtschke right up until his execution. Could he have been telling the...

*** Content warnings: Child victim, sexual assault *** [Part 1 of 2] When 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke failed to return home after running an errand for her family, they were immediately concerned. Al...

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, domestic violence *** Jeff and Tim Slaten woke on the morning of Friday, September 4 1981, to find their home teeming with police. Their mother, Linda, had been...

May 3 1991, was a typical Friday for 58-year-old Margaret Penny. In the afternoon, she visited the Old London Coiffure in the heart of Portland, Victoria, for her weekly hair appointment with 49-year-...

*** Content warnings: Sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking *** When Angela Connell met Ian Diaz, the pair began a whirlwind romance that quickly led to marriage and a growing family. But their...

*** Content warning: Child victim *** On November 16 2001, two state troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police arrived to conduct a welfare check at the Poconos Mountains home of 52-year-old Benjam...

*** Content warning: Child victims, serial rapist, stalking *** When the Koneva family fled to England to escape the war-torn Balkans, their hopes for a peaceful new beginning were soon shattered. In...

On September 5 2012, a cyclist driving through the French Alps came upon a shocking scene. Married couple Saad and Iqbal al-Hilli, along with Iqbal’s elderly mother Suhaila al-Allaf, were shot executi...

*** Child victim, child sexual assault, sexual assault/rape *** When six-year-old Bonnie Clarke is murdered in her bed in the middle of the night just four nights before Christmas in 1982, Melbourne...

*** Content warning: Sexual assault *** For 21-year-old British student Meredith Kercher, spending a year studying in Italy was a dream come true. But within months of arriving in the medieval town o...

In May 2021, residents of the affluent Athens suburb of Glyka Nera were left shaken by news of a violent home invasion. Three masked intruders had killed 19-year-old Caroline Crouch as she slept besid...

*** Content warning: Extreme sexual violence, captivity *** [Part 2 of 2] As the years of abuse, torture and confinement to the bed box continued for Colleen Stan, she remained paralysed by her fear...

*** Content warning: Extreme sexual violence, captivity *** [Part 1 of 2] When Colleen Stan’s family received an unexpected phone call from Colleen in June 1980, they were stunned. No one had seen or...

In the spring of 2005, two 18-year-olds met in an online chat room and immediately hit it off. Jessi went by the username TalHotBlond, while her new friend Tommy called himself MarineSniper. It wasn’t...

In March 1977, school bus driver Mary Gillespie started receiving threatening letters delivered to her home in Circleville, Ohio. It wasn’t long before her husband, Ron Gillespie, also received the le...

For Marea Yann, two things mattered most in life - family and community. When the 69-year-old was found violently bludgeoned to death in her Healesville home, the small Victorian town was left shaken....

*** Content warning: Child victim, child abuse, suicide, grooming *** When 14-year-old Andrew Gosden mysteriously disappeared from his home in the UK suburb of Doncaster, evidence emerged to indicate...

When Brian and Beverly Barry returned from a weekend away to discover their 19-year-old daughter Kim was gone, they initially assumed she was out with friends. Then news broke that a body had been fou...

*** Content warning: Domestic violence, sexual assault *** In Pakistani culture, arranged marriages are common.  So when the parents of Samia Shahid chose a husband for her, Samia agreed to the marria...

*** Content warning: Sexual assault *** [Part 2 of 2] When nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was abducted from the front of her family’s trailer in Richland County, South Carolina, there were immediate...

*** Content warning: Sexual assault *** [Part 1 of 2] When 17-year-old Shari Smith disappeared from the end of her family's driveway in Lexington, South Carolina, there were immediate concerns for he...

*** Content warning: Elder abuse *** The Director of Nursing at the Alpine Manor Nursing Home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was thrilled when Catherine Wood and Gwen Graham joined their team of nursing...

*** Content warning: Child victim, child sexual abuse *** When eight-year-old Jamie Lavis failed to return home on Monday, May 5 1997, his family quickly raised the alarm. Soon, it seemed as though a...

On November 16 2009, a 911 call was placed to the Utah County Sheriff’s Department by 34-year-old Pamela Mortensen. According to Pamela, her father-in-law Kay Mortensen was brutally murdered in his ow...