Forensic Investigators: Australia's True Crimes is an Australian television show hosted by Lisa McCune

Lisa McCune

Lisa McCune , is a four-time Gold Logie Award winning Australian actress, best known for her role as Senior Constable Maggie Doyle in Blue Heelers, and as Lt...

 which aired on the Seven Network

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

. It aired from 2004 to 2006.

Focusing on actual Australian crimes, each episode unfolds the drama minute-by-minute showing viewers the tireless work of detectives, and the scientific procedures required to solve these mysteries.

The series includes exclusive footage that has never been seen outside the courtroom, including police videos, crime scene stills and other forensic evidence. Recently the 1st and 2nd seasons have been released on DVD.

The third season featured a new time slot – Wednesday at 8:30 pm.

It is not known when, or if the fourth season will begin airing.

Season 1 (2004)

• Episode 1

  Paul Denyer

  Paul Denyer

  Paul Charles Denyer is an Australian serial killer, currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period 30 years at HM Prison Barwon for the murders of Elizabeth Stevens, 18, Debbie Fream, 22, and Natalie Russell, 17, in Frankston, Victoria in 1993.Denyer is...

  
  , 21, was responsible for the deaths of three young women (Elizabeth Stevens, 18, Debbie Fream, 22, and Natalie Russell, 17) in the town of Frankston, Victoria

  Frankston, Victoria

  Frankston is a suburb within the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area in Victoria, Australia. It is located 40 km southeast of the state capital Melbourne at the southernmost edge of Greater Melbourne, near the beginnings of the Mornington Peninsula...

  
   during 1993. The police had the odds stacked against them and would need to call on all their investigative and forensic skills to solve this crime.

• Episode 2

  A routine run on a quiet weekday morning leads to a gruesome discovery, throwing investigators into one of Australia's most bizarre murders.

• Episode 3

  Four bodies were found shot in a house in an outer suburb of Canberra

  Canberra

  Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

  
  . Inside the house was evidence that would not only lead investigators to the killer, but would uncover a secret buried for three years.

• Episode 4

  Neddy Smith had been given a life sentence when he confessed to the killing of Harvey Jones to his cell mate, giving a detailed account of how he killed him and where. In March 1995 a skull was found at Botany Beach.

• Episode 5

  A mother and her two children were found in their house brutally bashed to death. Was it a robbery gone wrong, or something far more sinister?

• Episode 6

  In April 1999, Maya Jakic's body was found covered under leaves and hidden in bushes out the front of an unused police patrol station in Adelaide, South Australia. Two years later, Japanese student Megumi Suzuki had gone missing and when police discovered her schoolbooks abandoned near a rail over-bridge they knew she had met with foul play.

Season 2 (2005)

• Episode 1

  In December 1994, Andrew Astbury's body was found floating in Melbourne's Yarra River

  Yarra River

  The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...

  
  . He was a hard working, reliable 25-year-old man from a good family. So why was he murdered? Look at the brilliant detective and forensic science work that helped solve this chilling murder.

• Episode 2

  Queensland Cat Protection Society president Kathleen Marshall is found brutally stabbed to death. In a case involving rumours, cat-fights and fortune telling, the detectives rely on forensics and five tiny spots of blood to separate fact from fiction and point them towards the killer.

• Episode 3

  A young woman's body is found wrapped in plastic. Unidentified for several months, she became known as Jane Doe. Who was she and who wanted her dead?

• Episode 4

  The body of 22-year-old Tasmania

  Tasmania

  Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

  
  n Amanda Carter was found alongside the Derwent River. It took 13 years and a revolution in forensic science to finally bring her killer to account.

• Episode 5

  This Granny Killer murdered six elderly women before his year-long reign of terror in Sydney's northern suburbs ended. How was the killer John Wayne Glover

  John Wayne Glover

  John Wayne Glover was a British-born Australian serial killer convicted for the murders of six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore....

  
   finally brought to justice?

• Episode 6

  Policewoman Angela Taylor was killed when a car exploded outside Melbourne's Russell Street police headquarters. What clues were found among the debris? Who was responsible?

• Episode 7

  When the battered body of Darryl Lewis is found dumped outside an ambulance station, police began an investigation that becomes one of the longest running in Queensland's

  Queensland

  Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

  
   history.

• Episode 8 (Part 1)

  In 1998, Wollongong was gripped by fear after the brutal deaths of shopkeeper David O'Hearn and Lord Mayor Frank Arkell.

• Episode 9 (Part 2)

  After committing two violent murders in Wollongong, NSW, Mark Valera became the youngest offender to receive a life sentence. While he's behind bars his father is brutally killed. But who committed that crime and what was the motive?

• Episode 10

  When 17-year-old US-born Gabriel Meyer first went missing in the Northern Queensland town of Innisfail

  Innisfail, Queensland

  Innisfail is a town located in the far north of the state of Queensland, Australia. It is the major township of the Cassowary Coast and is well renowned for its sugar and banana industries, as well as for being one of Australia's wettest towns...

  
  , it was feared he'd been eaten by a crocodile

  Crocodile

  A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

  
  , but the truth was far more sinister.

• Episode 11

  Samantha Bodsworth's body was found in a Noosa carpark one hour away from her hometown of Gympie

  Gympie

  Gympie may refer to:* Gympie, a city in Queensland, Australia** Gympie Airport** Electoral district of Gympie** Gympie Region, its local government authority* Gympie Gympie , a stinging plant...

  
  . The killer thought he'd committed the perfect murder but a little-known area of forensic science would be his undoing.

• Episode 12

  Fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Janet Phillips went to a party in her home suburb of Wynnum

  Wynnum, Queensland

  Wynnum is a suburb located on the shores of Moreton Bay in Brisbane, Australia, about 16 kilometres east of the CBD. The area was sparsely settled until the arrival of the railway in the late 1880s, but then grew fairly rapidly. The former Wynnum Shire Council was created in 1902, and twelve years...

  
   on Brisbane

  Brisbane

  Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

  
  's southside in July 1987 and never came back. Not long after she was reported missing her body was found a couple of kilometres away. Police had a strong suspect but they were unable to prove he'd killed the teenager. When DNA

  DNA

  Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

  
   technology later became available they were astounded that their suspect was eliminated. Then, there was a further attack on a girl in Wynnum, with chilling similarities to the way police believed had been murdered 10 years before. Was it the same killer?

• Episode 13

  Danny Wasley and Mark Banks disappear without a trace in Newcastle, New South Wales

  Newcastle, New South Wales

  The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

  
   during August 1999. In a case involving drug lords, revenge and cold blooded murder, police uncover a tangled web of lies which finds Kevin Naysmith guilty of the two murders which took place at his home and burial of the two bodies in sand dunes at Stockton Beach.

• Episode 14

  When Peter Astill went missing during August, 1998, it took three months before his decapitated body (missing his head and hands), and also wrapped in a blanket was found stuffed inside a wheelie bin floating in a river in Lower Colo, NSW. What could have been the perfect murder was proved wrong when the serial number of the wheelie bin fell into the bin after an attempt had been made to remove it. The bin had been silicon sealed and tightened with hex screws. Police crews tracked the bin back to belonging to his next-door neighbour Bruce Patterson who had killed Peter Astill on the outskirts of Sydney, NSW and decapitated the body with an axe which belonged to the victim.

• Episode 15

  An Easter

  Easter

  Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

  
   family holiday in 1998 ends in tragedy when a truck collides with a caravan on the Hume Freeway near Violet Town, Victoria

  Violet Town, Victoria

  Violet Town is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is in the Shire of Strathbogie local government area. It was a coach stop on the Melbourne to Sydney road...

  
  , killing a 12-year-old boy. The truck driver fails to stop. With no licence plate number and little to go on, finding the person responsible may take a miracle.

• Episode 16

  When caravan park

  RV park

  A recreational vehicle park or caravan park is a place where people with recreational vehicles can stay overnight, or longer, in alloted spaces known as "pitches"...

  
   manager named Angelo went missing from the small town of Millicent

  Millicent, South Australia

  Millicent is a town in South Australia, south-east of Adelaide, and north of Mount Gambier. At the 2006 Census, the population was 4,771.The town is home to the Millicent National Trust Museum, and is nearby to the Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park and the Canunda National Park.The Millicent...

  
   in South Australia

  South Australia

  South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

  
  , friends and family called everyone they knew to try to find him. Yet no one had seen or heard anything.

Season 3 (2006)

• Episode 1 – The Valentine's Day Murders

  Date Aired: 9 August 2006

  Two women are found dead on Valentine's Day

  Valentine's Day

  Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...

  
   in a burning massage parlour. The ashen remains uncover not only the killer, but a murder spree spanning 10 years.

  On Valentine's Day 1994, two women were found dead in a burning massage parlour in Sydney. The owner had been stabbed while her employee had been shot three times.

  It appeared that the manager was the target in the frenzied attack. Her husband told police she'd been receiving death threats prior to her death. But whether it was a disgruntled client or a rival business, he was unsure.

  As investigators delved into the manager's past and her final movements, all was not what it seemed. The attacker had started the fire to destroy any evidence but investigators were able to pick through the ashen remains and uncover the truth... a truth that would not only lead to her killer but to a murder spree spanning 10 years.

• Episode 2 – Till Death do us Part

  Date Aired: 16 August 2006

  In a small New South Wales country town, a man arrived home in June 2000 to find his wife of 20 years, lying dead. After making the grisly discovery, he cradled her body and hysterically called for help.

  After hearing his cries, neighbours called police, who arrived to find the husband in an uncontrollable state of rage. Police at the scene noted his hostile behaviour as unusual. But did that make him the murderer or was he simply a husband grieving in anger for his slain wife?

  Detectives discovered the victim's watch had stopped at exactly 9.14 and 28 seconds. It was potentially the time that she'd been killed. Crime scene examiners also found the scattered remnants of two beer bottles, and a number of bloodied footprints and paw prints on the carpet through most of the house. In the main bedroom, drawers were open, clothes scattered, yet no valuables had been taken. The scene just didn't add up.

  Thanks to a forensic watchmaker's expertise and the purchase of a slab of beer to test some laws of physics, the true picture emerged and the motive for the woman's murder was discovered.

• Episode 3 – Flemington Armed Robbery

  Date Aired: 23 August 2006

  When armed robbers launched a surprise attack on security guards in the process of restocking two ATMs

  Automated teller machine

  An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...

  
   in January 2002, they did so in broad daylight along a busy shopping strip just minutes from the heart of Melbourne. So brazen was the assault, when police arrived moments later one witness told them he thought the balaclava-clad figures must have been making a movie.

  Examining the scene, it was immediately apparent the hold-up had been well-planned. Clearly the bandits were not amateurs. They had managed to escape with $150,000 but who were they?

  Thanks to the help of witnesses and some unusual forensic evidence, that included green floral contact paper and orange rope, detectives were eventually able to identify and capture the two masked men who'd committed this violent crime.

• Episode 4 – Turkish Consulate Bombing

  Date Aired: 30 August 2006

  The Melbourne suburb of South Yarra

  South Yarra, Victoria

  South Yarra is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Stonnington and Melbourne...

  
   was rocked by a blast in the early hours of 23 November 1986. A car containing a bomb had exploded in the car park below the Turkish Consulate

  Diplomatic missions of Turkey

  This is a list of diplomatic missions of Turkey, excluding honorary consulates. In 1793, the first permanent Turkish embassy was established by Selim III in London....

  
  , wrecking the building and damaging shops in the area.

  An elite group of Victorian police were called together to find those responsible for the apparent act of terrorism. The discovery of human remains at the crime scene suggested the bomber had been killed in the explosion.

  While the bomber had been blasted beyond recognition, other vital clues had survived the explosion. Identifiable sections of the bomb car and a wallet containing vital links to those involved were recovered.

  Through careful examination of crime scene evidence, investigators were able to identify those responsible. The case was the first act of terrorism investigated and prosecuted in Victoria.

• Episode 5 – My Partner, My Killer

  Date Aired: 6 September 2006

  Patricia Byers and her partner of three years, John Asquith, were enjoying a romantic evening for two aboard the luxury cabin cruiser Misty Blue. Moored near Stradbroke Island

  Stradbroke Island

  Stradbroke Island, also known as Minjerribah, was a large sand island that formed much of the eastern side of Moreton Bay near Brisbane, Queensland until the late 19th century...

  
  , they enjoyed a meal together and made love before retiring for the night in April 1993.

  Hours later, Asquith awoke covered in blood. He'd been shot in the head. When he found Byers lying on the deck, she claimed they'd been attacked by pirates. When police investigated the incident, they discovered Byers stood to gain almost $300,000 from Asquith's death through life insurance policies. Was she telling the truth about the pirate attack or had she pulled the trigger herself?

  As police delved further into Byers' history, they learned that her defacto husband Carl Gottgens had mysteriously disappeared in 1990. Was she the victim of a series of unfortunate coincidences? Or was she a black widow preying on men for money?

• Episode 6 – Who Killed Paul Snabel?

  Date Aired 13 September 2006

  A man disappears without a trace. When parts of his beloved bike begin appearing in local tips and dams, suspicions of foul play prove correct.

  When Paul Snabel didn't return home for over a week in November 1989, his flatmate became concerned and reported him missing. Police were told he was last seen driving off into the distance on his motorbike, having consumed an entire bottle of whiskey before embarking on his journey home. Had Paul been involved in an accident and was he now lying injured in a ditch somewhere?

  But when the police began their search for the young man, parts of his motorbike began suspiciously appearing in rubbish tips and dams in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. The bike had been systematically dismantled... this had been no accident. Why would Paul destroy his beloved bike? Their hopes for his safe return were rapidly diminishing.

  As detectives delved further into Paul's last known movements, they uncovered a tangled web of lies and deceit. Slowly but surely detectives began to unravel the truth behind Paul's disappearance, relying on forensic evidence to link the offenders to this grisly crime.

• Episode 7 – Truong Kidnap and Murder

  Date Aired 20 September 2006

  On 29 April 1996, Le Anh Tuan was kidnapped by three men from his Melbourne home. In broad daylight, neighbours watched as he was bundled into the boot of a car. His captors later demanded a $400,000 ransom for his safe return.

  In a series of phone calls, the kidnappers demanded payment and organised for the drop off to happen. But as the undercover operative drove Le's mother to hand over the money, things went horribly wrong.

  On 7 June school boys discovered Tuan's body in a Noble Park

  Noble Park, Victoria

  Noble Park is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 26 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Greater Dandenong...

  
   drain. He'd been shot in the head. While police targeted a Hong Kong-based drug trafficker as the mastermind behind the kidnap and killing, their job was to link him with his Australian-based operatives.

  What followed was one of the largest and most complex homicide investigations ever undertaken by Victorian Police. It crossed many continents, including the USA, where a Marlboro baseball cap found at the kidnapping crime scene was identified as one of a limited number made as giveaways at duty free outlets within the States. It provided investigators with the breakthrough they needed and led them to the people responsible.

• Episode 8 – Operation Sorbet

  Date aired: 4 October 2006

  In April 2003, 125 kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of $160 million landed off the coast of Victoria near the town of Lorne

  Lorne, Victoria

  Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay in Victoria, Australia. It is situated about the Erskine River and is a popular destination on the Great Ocean Road tourist route...

  
  .

  Two men in a rubber dinghy had brought it over from an ocean going vessel called the Pong Su. In the process of meeting their three-man shore party, the dinghy capsized and one of the men drowned.

  The Australian Federal Police

  Australian Federal Police

  The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...

  
   had known about the drug running operation for some weeks and had undercover surveillance in place. But when the arrests occurred they could only find three persons of interest – one was still missing.

  As a special operations group dramatically boarded the fleeing ship, the Victoria Police

  Victoria Police

  Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...

  
   found their missing man and because he held a GPS (Global Positioning System) in his pocket they were able to virtually retrace every step made by the smugglers.

  Like Hansel and Gretel

  Hansel and Gretel

  "Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known fairy tale of German origin, recorded by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a cannibalistic hag living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children...

  
  , the forensic team came across breadcrumbs of evidence that would seal the four men's fate and put them behind bars for 16 years.

• Episode 9 – Catch Me If You Can

  Date Aired: 11 October 2006

• Episode 10 – Park Family Murders

  Date Aired :18 October 2006

• Episode 11 – The Sex Worker Murders

  Date Aired 25 October 2006

Infamous cases

Throughout all seasons of the show, Forensic Investigators has covered a few of Australia's most bizarre and grusome crimes. The show has also covered some infamous serial killers and murderers. Here are some of the infamous crimes the show has covered:

• Paul Denyer
  Paul Denyer
  Paul Charles Denyer is an Australian serial killer, currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period 30 years at HM Prison Barwon for the murders of Elizabeth Stevens, 18, Debbie Fream, 22, and Natalie Russell, 17, in Frankston, Victoria in 1993.Denyer is...
  
  : The "Frankston
  Frankston, Victoria
  Frankston is a suburb within the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area in Victoria, Australia. It is located 40 km southeast of the state capital Melbourne at the southernmost edge of Greater Melbourne, near the beginnings of the Mornington Peninsula...
  
   Serial Killer" murdered 3 women between June and August in 1993.
• Neddy Smith
  Neddy Smith
  Arthur Stanley "Neddy" Smith is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of rape, armed robbery and murder.Smith has been serving a life sentence since 1989 and is presently imprisoned in Long Bay Correctional Centre after being moved from Lithgow Correctional Centre in New South Wales,...
  
  : Notorious Sydney gangster linked to several underworld murders during the 1980s. Smith was convicted of (and confessed to) 2 murders, that of Harvey Jones and the other of a tow truck driver.
• John Wayne Glover
  John Wayne Glover
  John Wayne Glover was a British-born Australian serial killer convicted for the murders of six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore....
  
  : The "Granny Killer" murdered 6 elderly women in broad daylight in Mosman
  Mosman, New South Wales
  Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Mosman.-Localities:In February...
  
  , New South Wales between 1989 and 1990.
• Russell Street Bombing
  Russell Street Bombing
  The Russell Street Bombing refers to the 27 March 1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Headquarters complex in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...
  
  : A car bomb exploded outside the Russell Street Police Headquarters in Melbourne in 1986 killing policewoman Angela Taylor.
• Mark Valera
  Mark Valera
  Mark Valera was convicted in 2000 of the gruesome murders of David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell at Wollongong, New South Wales.- David O'Hearn :...
  
  : He murdered shopkeeper David O'Hearn and former Mayor Frank Arkell, and planned to murder his father. Later his father was murdered by his best friend on his sister's orders.
• Mark Rust: Murdered Maya Javic in April 1999 near Adelaide
  Adelaide
  Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
  
   and Japanese student Megumi Suzuki in 2001.
• Richard Leonard: In one of Australia's most bizarre murders, murdered Stephen Dempsey in 1994 and then he and his girlfriend murdered a taxi driver.
• Allen Thompson: Murdered The Milosevic Family (Radmila Milosevic, her defacto husband Tony and their 2 children) in the ACT in March 1984. Forensic evidence later connected him to the murder of Rad's 2 sisters who had died in a car crash in December 1981, where Thompson was the driver of the vehicle. He was one of Australia's worst killers at the time.
• Lloyd Clark Fletcher: Raped and attempted to murder a young girl in 1977, and later raped and murdered 15-year-old Janet Phillips in 1987. Between 1987 and 1997 he raped and attempted to abduct various other women in Victoria; other crimes were in Queensland.
• Pong Su Incident
  Pong Su incident
  The Pong Su incident occurred during April 2003 when members of the Australian Special Operations Command intercepted and boarded the Pong Su, a North Korean ocean freighter in Australian territorial waters...
  
  : A drug syndicate, importation of heroin into Australia.

DVD releases

In early 2006, the 1st and 2nd seasons of the show were released on DVD. Each episode has bonus features, the main feature is that each episode has a longer running time than when it was shown on TV. All the episodes on the DVD have longer interviews with police, family or friends of the victim or victims and even interviews with family or friends of the killer or killers. There are also more video clips and photos shown of the crime scene.

See also

• List of Australian television ratings for Forensic Investigators
• List of Seven Network programs
• List of Australian television series

External links

• Seven's Forensic Investigators website
• Forensic Investigators at the National Film and Sound Archive