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.

Ep 120 - Sef Gonzales

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.

Ep 124 - Candace Newmaker, and Sharnelle in Quarantine

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 at HM Prison Wakefield, West Yorkshire on 13 January 2004, a day before his 58th birthday.

Sylvia Marie Likens (January 3, 1949 – October 26, 1965) was an American teenager who was tortured and murdered by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, many of Baniszewski's children, and several of their neighborhood friends. This abuse incrementally lasted for three months before Likens died from her extensive injuries and malnourishment on October 26 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Likens was increasingly neglected, belittled, sexually humiliated, beaten, starved, lacerated, and dehydrated by her tormentors. Her autopsy showed 150 wounds across her body, including several burns and receded skin. Through intimidation, her younger sister, Jenny, was occasionally forced to participate in her mistreatment. The official cause of her death was determined to be a homicide caused by a combination of subdural hematoma and shock, complicated by severe malnutrition.

Ep 126 - Harold Shipman, Sylvia Likens

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.

Ep 128 - Roger Dean, and The Messiest Execution

Today, Brighton is one of Melbourne’s wealthiest suburbs, but in 1853 it was the scene of two bizarre murders, with a bag of sugar left on the victim’s head.

And we unpack some frank feedback from listener Joey.

Ep 129 - The Brighton Murders and Joey’s priceless feedback

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.

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

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 …..

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

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.

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

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.

Ep 138 - Plane Crash In The Andes

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.

Ep 139 - The Eye Drops

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.

Ep 140 - Lucy Letby

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.

Ep 141 - Boiled To Death

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.

Ep 142 - Katie Haley

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.

Ep 143 - Velma Barfield

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.

Ep 144 - Alvin Ridley

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.

Ep 146 - Eaten Alive

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.

Ep 147 - Ding Dong Ditch

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, who is digging in a disused gold mine for the remains of his missing brother.

More info on Instagram: @theboyinthegoldmine or on Facebook: The Boy In The Gold Mine

Please Follow and share with a friend!

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

TV crime and court reporter Sharnelle Vella has seen more dead bodies than she can count. Veteran radio host Dee Dee Dunleavy has never seen one. 

In this introduction to Series One of Dead Bodies, Sharnelle tells of the first time she saw a dead body at a tea plantation when she was just a child. 

Their special guest Peter “Grubby” Stubbs tells the story of what he was forced to do with a dead body.

Ep 1 - The little girl and the plantation

Dee Dee tells the story of one of the most famous dead body photos of all time: Evelyn McHale, who jumped from the Empire State Building.

Sharnelle tells of the bloody ending to her search for a missing body, and looks at the legendary crime scene photographer Weegee.  

The girls speak to journalist Brett McLeod who hadn’t seen a dead body well into his adult life. And then he was sent to cover the horror of the aftermath of the tsunami that hit Aceh in 2004.

Ep 2 - Evelyn McHale, Aceh and Weegee

Sharnelle has been looking through Victorian-era newspapers, where the bodies of babies and children were found in the classifieds.

Dee Dee recalls a severed penis found at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne, the hunt for the body that went with it, and the gruesome story that unfolded.

The girls talk to Tony Tardio who was traumatised as a young man when he saw a dead body on the train tracks.

Ep 3 - Severed penis at Flinders St

Sharnelle looks at the families of people who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, and the importance of being reunited with the remains of their loved ones. Some are still waiting today, 17 years after the Twin Towers fell.

Dee Dee looks at one of Australia’s worst mass murders that became known as the bodies in the barrels. John Bunting, Robert Wagner, and James Vlassakis killed 12 people between August 1992 and May 1999, in South Australia, and hid several of their bodies in a disused bank in Snowtown.

Pat has recently retired after 41 years as a gravedigger. He gives us an insight into his daily work with the dead.

Ep 17 - The Bodies In The Barrels

James Gargasoulas murdered six pedestrians and injured another 27 when he sped his car along a footpath in Bourke Street, Melbourne, in 2017.  After covering his trial, Sharnelle recounts the horror of his actions.

George Melville was sentenced to hang for his part in one of Australia’s biggest robberies in 1853. His wife requested his body after his death and put it on public display in the middle of Melbourne.

We speak to James, a funeral director, who first saw a dead body when he was four years old.

Ep 25 - James Gargasoulas, and The Body In The Oyster Shop

Two-year-old Nikki Coslovich went missing in Mildura in 2015. Sharnelle recalls covering the search for her, the finding of her body, and the ensuing court case.

In 2003 the bodies of Amarjit Chohan, his wife and mother, were found floating in the sea off Bournemouth in England. His two young boys are still missing. Three men have been jailed over the Chohan murders and a plot to steal the family’s freight business.

Ep 30 - Nikki Coslovich and The Chohan Murders

58-year-old Warren Meyer went for a walk in the bush at Dom Dom Saddle in the Yarra Ranges National Park on March 21, 2008.  He was never seen again. We track the search for him, through evidence heard in the Coroners Court of Victoria.

Spontaneous Human Combustion occurs when a living human body is burned without an apparent external source of ignition.  Often the legs and feet are the only remains.  We look at a number of cases of people bursting into flames, and examine what causes this bizarre phenomenon. 

We chat with Jaimie and Deb to find out about their fascinating new project, the Gympie Bone Museum.

Ep 38 - Warren Meyer, and Spontaneous Human Combustion

In Tasmania, in 1822, Alexander Pearce is one of eight convicts who escape from the Macquarie Harbour penal settlement into the mountain wilderness on the mainland. When they run out of food their only option is to kill and eat each other. Did Pearce cannibalise his mates out of necessity, or pleasure?

Have you ever played Chubby Bunny? DON’T!!! It’s the childhood game that has turned deadly.

We talk to Laura who has been investigating the story of Alice Pengel, a woman who was jailed in Western Australia over the death of a young mother at the end of World War Two. Laura reveals how a member of her family became embroiled in the scandal.

Ep 47 - Alexander Pearce the Cannibal Convict, and Chubby Bunny

In the early 1960’s, police were baffled by a series of gruesome crimes that they said was the work of The Sydney Mutilator.  William MacDonald was eventually caught and jailed for life for the killing spress. He freely admitted that he hated the world and would gleefully murder and mutilate again if he was released. 

American music producer Phil Spector is acknowledged as one of the most influential figures in pop music history..In 2009, he was convicted of second-degree murder.

Ep 54 - The Sydney Mutilator and Phil Spector

The murder of David O’Hearn in Wollongong in 1998 was described by season police as the most gruesome they had ever come across, with body parts strewn around the house. Within days, former Mayor Frank Arkell was also killed, and then Mark Valera - known as the Butcher of Wollongong - confessed.

Jessie Donker suffered at the hands of her violent partner for years, until she could take it no longer, and she aimed her car at Richard Powell and killed him. The sentencing judge - at times wiping away tears - described her case as one that required mercy.

Ep 71 - The Butcher of Wollongong, and Jessie Donker

22-year-old Sarah Cafferkey was bashed and stabbed by Steven James Hunter in Bacchus Marsh in 2012, after the pair had an argument. Her body was found in a wheelie bin at a home in Point Cook nine days later.

In 1993, when Helen Gilham, 55, and her 58-year-old husband Stephen were stabbed to death in their southern Sydney home, and then set alight. Their eldest son Christopher Gilham was also stabbed to death on the same morning. 

The only surviving member of the family, Jeffrey, admitted to killing his brother, who he claimed had killed their parents.

Ep 72 - Sarah Cafferkey, and Jeffrey Gilham

Tuesday, November 30 1937, a farmer found the body of a woman in his peach orchard near the entrance to Lake Parramatta reserve. There was a chaff bag over her head and shoulders

Jane Andrews, a former aide to the Duchess of York, was jailed for life for murdering her millionaire boyfriend Tom Cressman. She was initially released from jail in 2015, but was locked up again in July 2018, allegedly after being accused of harassing a former lover.

Ep 87 - The Chaff Bag Murder and Jane Andrews

A black mourning card and a bunch of radishes led to the brutal murder of a stallholder at Melbourne’s Eastern Markets in 1899 by phrenologist Emery Medor.

Tracie Andrews’ fiancee Lee Raymond Dean Harvey was stabbed over 42 times after they had stopped in his car following an argument on the way to their flat in The Becks, Alvechurch, Worcestershire, in 1996.

Ep 88 - Emery Medor, and Tracie Andrews

Two schoolgirls were abducted, raped and murdered in Bega, New South Wales, Australia on 6 October 1997. Lindsay Beckett claimed that he killed the girls under the orders of Leslie Camilleri.

Traigo Andretti was given a life sentence for killing and dismembering his wife, and pleaded guilty today to the murder of another woman named Myrna Letandre. The judge described him as "evil, vile and despicable," and said he had very little chance for rehabilitation. It was a moot point. Andretti didn’t live long enough for any chance at redemption.

Ep 109 - Traigo Andretti, and Bega School girl Murders Part 1

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.

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Dead Bodies Podcast

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