The Veil

Brevity Studios
Brevity Studios

The Veil is a chilling true crime podcast that pulls listeners deep into the world’s darkest and most haunting cases. Hosted by Ryan Wolf, each episode is crafted like an immersive thriller - a story told not just through facts, but through atmosphere, tension, and detail that makes you feel as though you’re standing inside the crime scene itself. These are not urban legends or ghost stories; every case is real, every victim and every clue drawn from documented fact. From unsolved murders to bizarre disappearances, infamous trials to cold cases that still whisper through history, The Veil strips back the layers of time and rumor to confront the unsettling truths hidden beneath. With an eye for detail and a voice that guides you through the shadows, Ryan brings both journalistic rigor and cinematic storytelling to each 30-minute episode. What emerges is an experience that is at once gripping and unnerving, reminding us that the scariest stories are not fiction at all. Pull back The Veil - but beware. Because sometimes, when we lift it, we don’t like what we find. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  1. 41 min ago ·  Bonus

    E57.5 | BONUS - While the Baby Slept: Jess Rigby (companion to Episode 57)

    A companion to Episode 57 — the death of Jason Rigby On the evening of 14 December 2024, Jess Rigby and her husband Chris had put their youngest to bed and started a movie when the calls began. Chris's brother Jason, forty years old and second-in-charge of a resort in Nadi, had died in his staff apartment that morning — ten hours earlier, on the other side of the Pacific, with a stab wound to the chest. By the time the family were told, the scene had already been cleared and released. In this conversation Jess describes what the twenty months since have been like: three trips to Fiji, a private investigator, a missing phone, a knife nobody can account for, a toxicology form with a word crossed out - and the single document her family has been given about how Jason died. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Jason's family want to hear from anyone who worked at, or stayed at, the Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort & Spa on 14 December 2024. There were hundreds of guests and hundreds of staff on the property that day, and almost none has ever been asked what they saw. No detail is too small. Justice for Jason Rigby — on Instagram and Facebook Or message anonymously via theguiltpodcast.com and it will be passed to the family. THE BOOK WHILE THE BABY SLEPT: A Family's Fight for Justice in Fiji Over the Unsolved Death of Jason Rigby, by Jessica Rigby (Hembury Books), publishes 24 November 2026. Ebook pre-orders are open now: amazon.com/dp/B0HGL7VG7P A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in relation to Jason Rigby's death, and no court or coroner has made any finding about how he died. The Fiji Police Force's public position, stated by Assistant Commissioner Mesake Waqa in June 2025, is that they could not establish foul play and that there was no cover-up. People who were present or nearby that morning are referred to in this conversation. None of them has been charged with anything, all are entitled to the presumption of innocence, and nothing said here should be taken as alleging criminal conduct by any of them. What Jess describes of what happened inside that apartment is her family's understanding of what they have been told. It is not a matter of record, because the record has not been released to them. There were two post-mortem examinations — one in Fiji, and a second by the Queensland Coroner after Jason was repatriated — and the family has been permitted to read neither. The reason given for withholding the Queensland report is that the matter forms part of an open investigation in Fiji. No wound count, no toxicology beyond a single alcohol screen, no scene examination, no witness statement and no incident report has ever been made public. Fiji Police referred the file to a Resident Magistrate in March 2025 recommending a full inquest. As at the end of August 2026, no inquest finding is on the public record. For the full case, the timeline and the sources, listen to Episode 57. SUPPORT This episode concerns a death officially recorded as suicide, and a family who do not accept that finding. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E57.5 | BONUS - While the Baby Slept: Jess Rigby (companion to Episode 57)

  2. 42 min ago

    E57 | Jason Rigby (Aus/Fiji)

    On the morning of 14 December 2024, Jason Rigby put on a suit, went to a meeting, and told colleagues in the lobby of the Fijian resort he had helped build that he would see them in half an hour. He was forty, the resort's executive assistant manager, living in staff quarters a hundred metres away. Within that half hour he was stabbed in the chest. His scene was cleared by four o'clock that afternoon — before his family in Australia had been told he was dead. Twenty months later they have obtained exactly one document about how he died, and somebody had already crossed a word out of it. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Jason's family want to hear from anyone who worked at, or stayed at, the Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort & Spa on 14 December 2024. There were hundreds of guests and hundreds of staff on the property that day, and almost none has ever been asked what they saw. No detail is too small. LINKS Justice for Jason Rigby — on Instagram and Facebook Or message anonymously via theguiltpodcast.com and it will be passed to the family. Jessica Rigby's account of the case, WHILE THE BABY SLEPT: A Family's Fight for Justice in Fiji Over the Unsolved Death of Jason Rigby (Hembury Books), publishes 24 November 2026. Ebook pre-orders are open now: amazon.com/dp/B0HGL7VG7P A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in relation to Jason Rigby's death, and no court or coroner has made any finding about how he died. The Fiji Police Force's public position, stated by Assistant Commissioner Mesake Waqa in June 2025, is that they could not establish foul play and that there was no cover-up. Everyone who was near Jason that morning is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and nothing in this episode should be taken as suggesting otherwise. None of them is named in this episode. Almost nothing about this death has been released. There were two post-mortem examinations — one in Fiji, one by the Queensland Coroner after Jason was repatriated — and his family has been permitted to read neither. The reason given for withholding the Queensland report is that the matter forms part of an open investigation in Fiji. No wound count, no toxicology beyond a single alcohol screen, no scene examination and no witness statement has been made public. Accounts of what happened inside the flat come from Jason's family, and are their understanding of what they have been told rather than established fact. The published record on this case amounts to three things: the Fijian reporting of December 2024, the 60 Minutes broadcast of June 2025 and the police response to it, and Mamamia's interview with Jess Rigby in June 2026. The rest comes from the family. Fiji Police referred the file to a Resident Magistrate in March 2025 recommending a full inquest. As at the end of August 2026, no inquest finding is on the public record. SOURCES The Fiji Times, 16 Dec 2024 — the resort's statement that there was no criminal investigation FBC News, 17 Dec 2024 — ACP Mesake Waqa's first statement fijivillage / FBC News, 22–23 Jun 2025 — "We could not establish any foul play... there is no cover up" 60 Minutes Australia, "Murder in Paradise", 22 Jun 2025 Mamamia, Gemma Bath, 30 Jun 2026 True Crime Conversations (Mamamia) — "A Families' Fight For Answers After A Death In Paradise" Interview with Jess Rigby, 26 Aug 2026 SUPPORT This episode concerns a death officially recorded as suicide. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636. While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E57 | Jason Rigby (Aus/Fiji)

  3. 2 days ago ·  Bonus

    E52.5 | BONUS - Hunting Elly's Killer: Paul Warren, ten years on (companion to Episode 52)

    Elly Rose Warren was twenty years old, three days from flying home, when she was found dead beside a toilet block at Tofo Beach in Mozambique on 9 November 2016. The Mozambican autopsy recorded a violent death — a homicide — with sand obstructing her airways. The Australian autopsy left the cause undetermined. Nearly ten years later nobody has been charged, and almost everything now known about how Elly died was found by her father. In this conversation Paul Warren describes what he found: a crime scene he believes was altered before investigators arrived, a photograph that existed for two years before his family was shown it, clothing that never came home, and an Australian agency he says did not go to Mozambique officially until seven years after his daughter died. ELLY WARREN — THE TRUE FACTS Paul has published his entire ten-year investigation, including scanned primary documents, at ellywarren.net. If you take one thing from this episode, take that. THE ELLY WARREN PROTOCOL Paul's proposed reform for what should happen when an Australian dies overseas in suspicious circumstances — putting the coroner in control from the start, and using state homicide expertise rather than leaving families to investigate for themselves. It is set out on his website. It has not been taken up. THE BOOK HUNTING ELLY'S KILLER: A father's relentless pursuit of justice, by Paul Warren (Simon & Schuster Australia, ISBN 9781761636486). Available in print, ebook and audiobook. https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Hunting-Ellys-Killer/Paul-Warren/9781761636486 Kindle: amazon.com.au/dp/B0GR1JY5H4 Ebook ISBN 9781761636493 — also at Booktopia, Dymocks, Readings, QBD and Mighty Ape in New Zealand. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING If you were at Tofo Beach in November 2016, or know anything about what happened there, you can reach us through theguiltpodcast.com — anonymously if you prefer. Anything concerning Elly is passed to Paul directly. A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in connection with Elly Warren's death. The Victorian coronial inquest was held in 2023. Judge John Cain delivered his findings on 15 December 2023: the cause of death was aspiration of a large amount of sand; he could not determine how the sand came to be there; he could not rule on whether the death was a homicide; he found it possible that a person or people caused or contributed to her death; he could not say whether she died where she was found or was moved there; and he could not determine whether she had been sexually assaulted, though he accepted it was possible. Three post-mortem examinations reached different conclusions — in Mozambique, in South Africa and in Melbourne — and all three found sand in her airways. The Melbourne finding of "undetermined" was later amended following evidence at the inquest. Paul is severely critical of the Australian Federal Police, the Mozambican police and the Victorian coronial process. Those criticisms are his, they are strongly held, and the documents he relies on are published on his website for you to read and weigh. Nothing in this episode should be taken as alleging criminal conduct by any identified person. SOURCES ellywarren.net — Paul Warren's published investigation and primary documents Coroners Court of Victoria — inquest into the death of Elly Rose Warren, findings delivered 15 December 2023 ABC News, 22 August 2023 and 15 December 2023 — inquest and findings reporting Hunting Elly's Killer, Paul Warren (Simon & Schuster Australia) Interview with Paul Warren, recorded 25 August 2026 SUPPORT This episode concerns the unexplained death of a young woman overseas, and refers to the possibility of sexual assault. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. Hosted by Ryan Wolf. brevityplus.com While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E52.5 | BONUS - Hunting Elly's Killer: Paul Warren, ten years on (companion to Episode 52)

  4. 3 days ago ·  Bonus • Brevity+ Only

    E52.5 | BONUS - Hunting Elly's Killer: Paul Warren, ten years on (companion to Episode 52)

    Elly Rose Warren was twenty years old, three days from flying home, when she was found dead beside a toilet block at Tofo Beach in Mozambique on 9 November 2016. The Mozambican autopsy recorded a violent death — a homicide — with sand obstructing her airways. The Australian autopsy left the cause undetermined. Nearly ten years later nobody has been charged, and almost everything now known about how Elly died was found by her father. In this conversation Paul Warren describes what he found: a crime scene he believes was altered before investigators arrived, a photograph that existed for two years before his family was shown it, clothing that never came home, and an Australian agency he says did not go to Mozambique officially until seven years after his daughter died. ELLY WARREN — THE TRUE FACTS Paul has published his entire ten-year investigation, including scanned primary documents, at ellywarren.net. If you take one thing from this episode, take that. THE ELLY WARREN PROTOCOL Paul's proposed reform for what should happen when an Australian dies overseas in suspicious circumstances — putting the coroner in control from the start, and using state homicide expertise rather than leaving families to investigate for themselves. It is set out on his website. It has not been taken up. THE BOOK HUNTING ELLY'S KILLER: A father's relentless pursuit of justice, by Paul Warren (Simon & Schuster Australia, ISBN 9781761636486). Available in print, ebook and audiobook. https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/Hunting-Ellys-Killer/Paul-Warren/9781761636486 Kindle: amazon.com.au/dp/B0GR1JY5H4 Ebook ISBN 9781761636493 — also at Booktopia, Dymocks, Readings, QBD and Mighty Ape in New Zealand. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING If you were at Tofo Beach in November 2016, or know anything about what happened there, you can reach us through theguiltpodcast.com — anonymously if you prefer. Anything concerning Elly is passed to Paul directly. A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has been charged with any offence in connection with Elly Warren's death. The Victorian coronial inquest was held in 2023. Judge John Cain delivered his findings on 15 December 2023: the cause of death was aspiration of a large amount of sand; he could not determine how the sand came to be there; he could not rule on whether the death was a homicide; he found it possible that a person or people caused or contributed to her death; he could not say whether she died where she was found or was moved there; and he could not determine whether she had been sexually assaulted, though he accepted it was possible. Three post-mortem examinations reached different conclusions — in Mozambique, in South Africa and in Melbourne — and all three found sand in her airways. The Melbourne finding of "undetermined" was later amended following evidence at the inquest. Paul is severely critical of the Australian Federal Police, the Mozambican police and the Victorian coronial process. Those criticisms are his, they are strongly held, and the documents he relies on are published on his website for you to read and weigh. Nothing in this episode should be taken as alleging criminal conduct by any identified person. SOURCES ellywarren.net — Paul Warren's published investigation and primary documents Coroners Court of Victoria — inquest into the death of Elly Rose Warren, findings delivered 15 December 2023 ABC News, 22 August 2023 and 15 December 2023 — inquest and findings reporting Hunting Elly's Killer, Paul Warren (Simon & Schuster Australia) Interview with Paul Warren, recorded 25 August 2026 SUPPORT This episode concerns the unexplained death of a young woman overseas, and refers to the possibility of sexual assault. If it raises anything difficult for you: New Zealand — 1737, call or text any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia — Lifeline 13 11 14. 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732. Hosted by Ryan Wolf. brevityplus.com

    E52.5 | BONUS - Hunting Elly's Killer: Paul Warren, ten years on (companion to Episode 52)

  5. 5 days ago • Brevity+ Only

    E56 | Subscriber Special | The Butcher of Brisbane

    On a Sunday morning in March 1848, a boatman on the Brisbane River found a body in the mud at Kangaroo Point. It was in two pieces and it had no head. The head was across the road from the Bush Inn, in a half-built house. The hotel's cook, William Fyfe, identified it as a sawyer named Robert Cox — a man he had known since they were both convicts at Moreton Bay, and who had been in his bed the previous afternoon. Fyfe was hanged in Sydney that June on entirely circumstantial evidence, protesting his innocence to the end. Forty years later a Queensland memoirist wrote that another man had confessed on his deathbed to the killing, and to watching an innocent stand-in hang for it. He never said who. Brisbane decided who. This is the murder, the trial, and how a city attached a name to an unnamed confession — and the fortune that name is still spending. **A NOTE ON SOURCING** Nobody has ever been proved to have killed Robert Cox. Fyfe was convicted by a Sydney jury and hanged, but the Solicitor-General conceded the case was entirely circumstantial and the Chief Justice asked the jury whether the facts led to the "irresistible conclusion" that Fyfe and no one else could be the killer. The jury took about half an hour. Patrick Mayne was never charged, never treated as a suspect, and was never named in connection with the killing in his lifetime. He was at the Bush Inn that night; on the evidence of every witness present, he arrived after Cox had left. The allegation against him first appeared in print in 1997, 132 years after his death, in Rosamond Siemon's "The Mayne Inheritance." Brisbane barrister Stephen Sheaffe went back to the inquest statements and trial reports and published his analysis in Hearsay, the Bar Association of Queensland's journal. His conclusion: "There is no direct or even circumstantial evidence that Mayne murdered Cox," and the claim can be rejected "as there is not a scintilla of evidence." He also reports that Rosamond Siemon herself conceded there is no evidence for the deathbed confession — the priest's letter book she cited proved unreadable — including publicly, in a 2013 ABC radio interview. Everything said here about those concessions is Sheaffe's account and is attributed to him on air; no words are put in Siemon's mouth. The Australian Dictionary of Biography says her claims are "open to challenge." The evidence that two witnesses saw Cox in Fyfe's bed is reported as testimony. What that relationship was, nobody at the inquest asked, and nobody now can say. Two details in circulation are not used here because they could not be corroborated: that Fyfe's execution was botched, and that his written final statement was taken from his pocket on the way to the gallows. **SOURCES** Stephen Sheaffe, "The True Facts behind the Mayne Inheritance", Hearsay, Bar Association of Queensland — [hearsay.org.au](https://hearsay.org.au) Australian Dictionary of Biography: Patrick, Mary and James O'Neil Mayne — [adb.anu.edu.au](https://adb.anu.edu.au) Liam Baker, "The Murderous Maynes", Haunts of Brisbane, 2012 State Library of Queensland, "Brisbane Arcade: Celebrating 100 Years of Urban Myth", 2024 ABC News, "Brisbane Arcade celebrates 100 years... wild Mayne family rumours", 28/3/2024 QNews, "Sins of the father: Qld's gay philanthropist Dr James Mayne" Moreton Bay and More, "The A-Z of Old Brisbane" (quoting the Moreton Bay Courier, 1/4/1848) Rosamond Siemon, "The Mayne Inheritance", UQP, 1997 H. S. Russell, "The Genesis of Queensland", 1888 J. J. Knight, "In the Early Days", 1895 **SUPPORT** This episode describes a killing in graphic terms, an execution, and mental illness in a family. New Zealand: 1737, call or text, any time. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14. Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636.

    E56 | Subscriber Special | The Butcher of Brisbane

  6. 6 days ago

    E55 | How did she Fall? The Case of Warriena Wright and Gable Tostee (NZ/AUS)

    Warriena Tagpuno Wright was 26, a New Zealander, and had flown to Queensland for a friend's wedding. In the early hours of 8 August 2014 she fell 14 floors from a balcony at the Avalon apartments in Surfers Paradise. Almost the entire night had been recorded on the phone of the man she had met that evening — hours of audio, later played to a jury in Brisbane. In October 2016 Gable Tostee was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter. Two months later the Queensland State Coroner reopened the coronial investigation into how she died. Nearly ten years on, no finding has been published. A NOTE ON SOURCING Gable Tostee was tried in the Supreme Court of Queensland and acquitted of murder and of manslaughter on 20 October 2016. He has never been convicted of any offence in relation to Warriena Wright's death, and this episode does not suggest he should have been. The defence case is set out at length, including evidence from the recording of Warriena's own conduct that night. Nothing about his life after the verdict appears in the episode; that is a deliberate editorial decision, stated on air. A sound described as choking-like is audible on the recording. The pathologist, Dr Dianne Little, found reddening around Warriena's neck but considered it more likely caused by the fall than by strangulation, and found no internal neck injury. Those two pieces of evidence sit together in the episode and have never been publicly reconciled. A coroner in Queensland cannot find that anyone is guilty of an offence or civilly liable. The reopened coronial investigation was never a second prosecution. The statement that no coronial finding has been published is based on a direct search of the Coroners Court of Queensland findings archive and its inquest proceedings list, both checked on 20 August 2026. Not every coronial investigation produces a published document, so this establishes that nothing is publicly available — not that nothing was done. SOURCES ABC News trial coverage, October 2016, including "The Tinder date and the fatal fall" (20 Oct 2016) and the pathology evidence (13 Oct 2016): abc.net.au ABC News, "Plea for help from sister of Warriena Tagpuno Wright", 14 Aug 2014 RNZ court reporting: "Tostee trial: Jury hears Warriena Wright's last words"; "Warriena Wright had 80 injuries after balcony fall, court told"; "Gable Tostee found not guilty of killing Warriena Wright": rnz.co.nz The New Daily, "Coroner reopens investigation into Warriena Wright balcony death", 18 Dec 2016 Coroners Court of Queensland — findings archive, inquest proceedings list, and guidance on coroners' powers: coronerscourt.qld.gov.au SUPPORT This episode deals with a violent death, family violence and alcohol. New Zealand: 1737 (call or text, any time) · Family violence 0800 456 450 · Women's Refuge 0800 REFUGE · Alcohol Drug Helpline 0800 787 797 Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E55 | How did she Fall? The Case of Warriena Wright and Gable Tostee (NZ/AUS)

  7. 23 Aug

    E54 | Finding Alysha (NZ/USA)

    On 10 December 2001, her 24th birthday, Alysha Krsangi Hanin flew out of New Zealand for Florida, having just left her three-year-old son with his grandmother. The plan was to collect her things in Miami and come home to raise him here. Four weeks later, in the small hours of Sunday 6 January 2002, she left the Shore Club hotel on Collins Avenue to get something to eat, and was never seen again. Her passport, purse, luggage, ID and credit cards were still in her room. Nobody reported her missing for three weeks. In the 24 years since: no verified sighting, no activity on her accounts. Police suspect foul play. Nobody has ever been charged. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING Miami Beach Police confirm the case is active. Her family asks five questions: Did you know Alysha — as Alysha, Krsangi or Yami — in Miami, Los Angeles, or within the Hare Krishna community, before 2002?Were you at or near the Shore Club on Collins Avenue in early January 2002 — including working there, on the door, valet, desk, housekeeping or bar?Do you remember seeing or hearing from her, anywhere, after 6 January 2002?Do you have photographs, letters or recordings in which she appears?Did anyone you know ever speak about her disappearance, then or since?Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade: 305-471-TIPS (anonymous) Miami Beach Police Department: 305-673-7900 — case 2002-3368 Florida Dept of Law Enforcement: 1-888-FL-MISSING (1-888-356-4774) Tips direct to her family, anonymously if you wish: findingalysha.com A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has ever been arrested, charged or named. Alysha Hanin is legally a missing person: no finding of death, no inquest, no judgment anywhere in this case. "Foul play is suspected" is Miami Beach Police's published position, not a finding. The episode refers to a former boyfriend who spoke briefly to the family's private investigator and then left the state. He has never been named, arrested or charged, and nothing in the record suggests any involvement. He is not named or described here, and no inference should be drawn. Almost everything known about the New Zealand end comes from two articles by one reporter — Katie Ham at Stuff, Jan 2024, republished by RNZ: one outlet, not two. The Miami reporting is Miami Herald copy syndicated across several sites, plus independent television reporting by Bridgette Matter at WPLG Local 10. The episode mentions that Alysha told her family she had been invited to party on Jeffrey Epstein's island. That comes from a single outlet, is an account of things she said, has never been tested, names or implicates no one, and is not connected to her disappearance. Cilla Senk's account of clothing returned to her that she did not recognise is her account, not a forensic finding; nothing indicates it was ever examined. Her recollection of a call with Interpol in Wellington is her own account, unanswered by any agency. Sources conflict on when she left the hotel and why she was in Miami; the episode sets out both and resolves neither. SOURCES Katie Ham, Stuff, 18 & 27 Jan 2024 (also on RNZ): stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350152238 Bridgette Matter, WPLG Local 10, 13 Aug 2026: local10.com Miami Herald, Jan 2024 and 15 Aug 2026 NamUs MP19635: namus.nij.ojp.gov/case/MP19635 The Charley Project: charleyproject.org/case/alysha-krsangi-hanin The family's site: findingalysha.com SUPPORT This episode deals with a disappearance, sexual exploitation and drug use. New Zealand: 1737 (call or text, any time) · Safe to Talk 0800 044 334 · Alcohol Drug Helpline 0800 787 797 · Women's Refuge 0800 REFUGE Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14 · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts. If you would like to suggest a case, you can message us via our website at www.brevityplus.com Subscribers get ad free listening to The Veil and all of our podcasts. Please consider subscribing to support our work. This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    E54 | Finding Alysha (NZ/USA)

  8. 18 Aug • Brevity+ Only

    E53 | Subscriber Special | Where is Sara Niethe? (NZ)

    On Sunday 30 March 2003, Sara Niethe drove out of Kerepehi in her mother's light green Honda Civic, stopped at a dairy in Ngatea where a security camera recorded her, and carried on to a house at Kaihere. She was never seen again. Her daughter turned ten the next day, with a table booked at a café. Ten years later Mark Pakenham pleaded guilty to her manslaughter — he had injected her with methamphetamine, a drug she had never used, and watched her die. He was paroled in 2016. Sara has never been found. Neither has the car. **IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING** The car is the most useful thing anyone can help with: a light green 1987 Honda Civic hatchback, registration NH4050, which vanished from the Kaihere / Ngatea / Thames area around 30–31 March 2003 and has never surfaced at a wrecker, been re-registered, or turned up in a drain or a paddock. Investigators believe that wherever the car is, Sara is with it. Anything else helps too — ground turned over on a farm that autumn, a paddock people were told to keep out of. You do not have to have done anything wrong to know about it. Bruce Currie, private investigator and former Waikato CIB senior detective, who has worked this case pro bono with Sara's family — 027 844 1349, [bruce@mrtracer.co.nz](mailto:bruce@mrtracer.co.nz). In confidence. NZ Police non-emergency: 105. Crime Stoppers: 0800 555 111 — anonymous. **A NOTE ON SOURCING** Mark Pakenham pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2013 and was sentenced in the High Court at Hamilton on 16 August 2013 to six years seven months. He was also convicted of two counts of injuring with intent to injure, relating to two women in Auckland between 1990 and 1992; those appear only because the sentencing judge relied on them in open court. He was paroled on 22 June 2016. This episode does not report on his life since. He later denied the account he pleaded guilty to; the Parole Board said this suggested "a person who is dishonest". No other person has ever been charged over Sara's death. The episode refers to one man, unnamed, recorded as having been in contact with Pakenham that day, who died in 2018. He was never charged, no court has made any finding about him, and no allegation is made against him. There was no trial, so no tested evidence and no judgment of fact — only an agreed summary and a sentencing. There is no forensic record: no remains, no post-mortem, no toxicology, no scene examination, no vehicle. Sara's age is reported variously as 30, 31 and 32; we used 31. The view that Pakenham had help disposing of Sara and the car is Bruce Currie's, and is not a finding of any court; police say there is no evidence of it. In October 2024, after an 18-month review, police found no reason to reopen the file. **SOURCES** New Zealand Parole Board, Mark Edward Pakenham, 9 June 2016 — [paroleboard.govt.nz](https://paroleboard.govt.nz) RNZ, "Police appeal for killer to reveal where body is" (2013); "Body still missing as killer released" (2016) — [rnz.co.nz](https://rnz.co.nz) Otago Daily Times (2011, 2013 court reporting) — [odt.co.nz](https://odt.co.nz) The Valley Profile, Hauraki — the local reporting that carried the 2022–23 searches — [valleyprofile.co.nz](https://valleyprofile.co.nz) Anna Leask, NZME (NZ Herald / Newstalk ZB), 2023–24 case reporting Mr Tracer (Bruce Currie) case files — [mrtracer.co.nz](https://mrtracer.co.nz) Waikato Times (2008); NZ Woman's Weekly family interview (2011) **SUPPORT** This episode deals with the killing of a woman, methamphetamine and long-term grief. NZ: 1737 (call or text) · Alcohol Drug Helpline 0800 787 797 · Family violence 0800 456 450 · Women's Refuge 0800 REFUGE · Victim Support 0800 842 846 AU: Lifeline 13 11 14 · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732

    E53 | Subscriber Special | Where is Sara Niethe? (NZ)
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Hosts & Guests

About

The Veil is a chilling true crime podcast that pulls listeners deep into the world’s darkest and most haunting cases. Hosted by Ryan Wolf, each episode is crafted like an immersive thriller - a story told not just through facts, but through atmosphere, tension, and detail that makes you feel as though you’re standing inside the crime scene itself. These are not urban legends or ghost stories; every case is real, every victim and every clue drawn from documented fact. From unsolved murders to bizarre disappearances, infamous trials to cold cases that still whisper through history, The Veil strips back the layers of time and rumor to confront the unsettling truths hidden beneath. With an eye for detail and a voice that guides you through the shadows, Ryan brings both journalistic rigor and cinematic storytelling to each 30-minute episode. What emerges is an experience that is at once gripping and unnerving, reminding us that the scariest stories are not fiction at all. Pull back The Veil - but beware. Because sometimes, when we lift it, we don’t like what we find. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Channel
    Brevity Studios
  • Creator
    Brevity Studios
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Ryan Wolf
  • Show Website
    The Veil
  • Provider
    Brevity Studios

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