Civilian Sleuths
Civilian Sleuths is a new investigative podcast shining a forensic light on Australia’s most challenging unsolved murders and missing persons cases.
For decades, these crimes have haunted families, investigators, and communities searching for answers—not for lack of effort, but because the tools of the past were limited.
Using original source material, coronial records, archived media, and modern analytical tools, Civilian Sleuths recreates timelines, re-examines evidence, and explores theories that may have been overlooked for decades. But the most powerful tool remains public memory.
Behind every cold case is a real person. A family. A life interrupted. And often, someone who still knows the truth.
If you know something—no matter how small—it may matter.
Launching January 6 with new episodes every second Tuesday, Civilian Sleuths invites you to become part of the investigation.
Unsolved. Unforgotten. Unfinished.
Listener discretion advised.
Episodes
16 episodes
Mary Anne Fagan - Someone Knows Who He Was (FINALE)
She wouldn't open that door for anyone. She opened it for a uniform. The investigation into Mary Anne Fagan's murder was consumed by a gravity well: the systematic dishonesty of "James," a council labourer whose lies ab...
Mary Anne Fagan - They Didn't Fit The Timeline
They thought they had him. For more than sixteen hours, his answers kept changing. He was never charged.In April 1978, two months after Mary Anne Fagan was murdered in her own home, the Homicide Squad sat a man down in Russell Str...
Mary Anne Fagan - He Didn't Tell Police
Police had the omissions, the contradictions, the missing time, the money, the alibi problem, and the forensic traces. If that still wasn’t enough, what was missing?On the morning Mary Anne Fagan was murdered, three council worker...
Mary Anne Fagan - The Best Lead
What if the best witness in the case was eventually treated as if he had seen nothing at all?At 12.10pm on the day Mary Anne Fagan was murdered, a retired Navy serviceman saw a man in RAAF uniform walk out of the front gate of 575...
Mary Anne Fagan - The Man Who Walked Out The Front Gate
Who had the opportunity to enter a house, in the middle of the day, surrounded by witnesses, and not be seen?On Friday, 17 February 1978, Mary Anne Fagan was last spoken to at approximately 10:30am inside her home at 575 Dandenong...
Mary Anne Fagan - The Door Wouldn't Open
A Friday morning in Armadale. An ordinary suburban street. A crime that remains unsolved.On 17 February 1978, Mary Anne Fagan — a 41-year-old mother of five — was killed inside her home on Dandenong Road, Armadale. No one has ever...
Mary Anne Fagan - Series 2 Trailer (1978)
She was dyeing her hair when something interrupted her. She never washed it out.On 17 February 1978, Mary Anne Fagan — a 41-year-old mother of five and wife of a senior RAAF officer — was murdered inside her locked home at 575 Dan...
Denise McGregor: An Ordinary Life, An Extraordinary Fact (FINALE)
Forty-eight years ago, thirteen-year-old Denise McGregor was murdered on a country road north of Melbourne.For forty-eight years, the case has remained unsolved — and the investigation has never been closed.Across five epis...
Denise McGregor: She Arranged an Alibi Before She Left
On the night she disappeared, a thirteen-year-old girl arranged an alibi before she left.Why?One detail is a coincidence. Two is unusual. Three is a pattern. Four is something else.On the e...
Denise McGregor: 30 Unaccounted For Minutes
What explanations can actually account for what happened to Denise McGregor?Any explanation must fit the evidence — and the limits of what can still be known.Denise was last seen near her home in Pascoe Vale on 20 March 197...
Bonus Update: A Note to Listeners and Contributors
This is a brief listener update.Since the release of this series, a number of people have reached out privately to share memories, documents, photographs, and contemporaneous newspaper material connected to Denise McGregor and to Pascoe ...
Denise McGregor: What The Evidence Holds
Nearly fifty years later, could this case still be solved — and on what evidence?Before any explanation can be tested, the reliability of the evidence must be established.In the decades since Denise McGregor was murdered, t...
Denise McGregor: Found on Merriang Road
A thirteen-year-old girl was murdered. A major investigation followed. Why didn’t it lead to an arrest?In March 1978, after Denise McGregor was found on Merriang Road, Victoria Police began an extensive homicide investigation....
Denise McGregor: The Night She Didn't Come Home
How does a thirteen-year-old girl disappear within 180 metres of her own home?On Monday, 20 March 1978, Denise McGregor left her family home in Pascoe Vale to buy dinner from a nearby fish and chip shop.On the walk home, sh...
