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. 7 hr ago

    E60 | Murder at Sea? The Joyita Mystery (NZ/Pacific)

    Before dawn on 3 October 1955, the MV Joyita left Apia on one engine, bound for Tokelau with 25 people aboard, among them a doctor on his way to operate, Tokelau's District Officer, and two children aged 3 and 11. She never arrived. Five weeks later she was found drifting north of Fiji, flooded and listing, with nobody aboard. Her life rafts, logbook, navigation gear and the captain's guns were gone. On deck was a doctor's bag holding a scalpel and blood-stained bandages. A 1956 Commission of Inquiry explained the flooding, but found the fate of the 25 "inexplicable on the evidence." So was it an accident at sea, or a crime? IN MEMORY Thomas Henry Miller, Charles R. Simpson, Tekokaa Teeweka, Aberaam Tanini, Henry McCarthy Jr, Penaia Kolio Pedro, Ihaia Kitiona Faraimo, Tagifano Latafoti Lepaio, Haipele Fihaga Himona, Ioakimi Iapeha Apete, Himeti Falaniko Mohe, Tuhaga Hila Elekana, Leota Telepu Kolo, Mohe Maota Peleti, James William Wallwork, George Kendall Williams, Takama Lapana, Tekai Lapana, Liua Noama Rosaiti Faiva, Founuku Uluola Talama, Herbert Hodgkinson, Alfred Denis Parsons, Roger Derrick Pearless, Joseph Hipili Pereira, Tomoniko Teofilo. Memorials stand at Mulinu'u Point, Apia, and on Fakaofo (2012). The Atafu Tokelau Community Group keeps a page on the families' campaign for formal declarations of death: matauala.org.nz A NOTE ON SOURCING This is a historical case. No one was ever charged and no court has found that any crime occurred. The mutiny theory involving Captain Miller and mate Chuck Simpson comes from Miller's friend Capt. S. B. Brown and the writer Robin Maugham (1962). It was never proved, and both men are presumed long dead. The 1956 Commission report (C. C. Marsack) could not be obtained for this episode; its findings are taken from reporting, including by a journalist who covered the inquiry. Criticism of the inquiry (a "suppressed" witness, the Fiji Guardian editor's unpublished report) reaches us through one family memoir and is untested. The "four tons" of missing cargo conflicts with the owners' representatives' 1955 statement that provisions were still aboard. The cash figure comes from reports at the time. The Thelma Todd link is ownership only. Status of death declarations checked 11 Sep 2026. SOURCES RNZ, "Call for coronial hearing into Tokelau's Joyita tragedy", 8 Mar 2012Atafu Tokelau Community Group, "Joyita - Unsolved Mystery" (incl. PMN, 2022) matauala.org.nzTerry Dunleavy tribute, Savali News, 11 Mar 2012Rosemary Francis, "A Watery Grave", Pae Koroki, Tauranga City Libraries, 2013Julie Parsons, Westmeath Independent, 28 Oct 2020; julieparsons.ieTe Vakai (Tokelau Government), 10th ed., 2012China Mail, 21 and 23 Nov 1955 (UP wires); Life, 12 Dec 1955; FATE, Apr 1961 (archive.org)Fiji Times, "Joyita - the ghost ship mystery", 5 May 2014Martinborough Star, 8 May 2023; Fijivillage, 7 Mar 2012David G. Wright, Joyita: Solving the Mystery (AUP, 2002); Robin Maugham, The Joyita Mystery (1962); John Harris, Without Trace (1981) SUPPORT This episode discusses sudden death and loss at sea. NZ: 1737 (call or text). AU: Lifeline 13 11 14. 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.

    E60 | Murder at Sea? The Joyita Mystery (NZ/Pacific)

  2. 6 Sept

    E59 | In Cold Blood | Part One of the Book Series

    On a Monday morning in November 1959, Truman Capote found a three hundred word wire story deep inside the New York Times. A wheat farmer, his wife and two of their children had been found bound and shot in their farmhouse in western Kansas. Nothing had been stolen. Capote went to Kansas with Harper Lee, stayed six years, and wrote the book that made true crime respectable. This episode tells both stories at once: what happened to Herb, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter, and what happened to the facts on their way into In Cold Blood. It ends with the two daughters who survived, and the letter they sent to everyone who asked.   IN MEMORY The Clutters are buried at Valley View Cemetery, Garden City. A shelter at the Kansas State 4-H camp at Rock Springs Ranch, a stained glass window at the First United Methodist Church in Garden City, and the Garden City Co-op building are dedicated to the family. The 1959 murders of Cliff, Christine, Jimmie and Debbie Walker at Osprey, Florida, remain an open investigation with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.   A NOTE ON SOURCING Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were convicted of all four murders on 29 March 1960 and hanged on 14 April 1965. The Kansas Supreme Court never determined which man fired which shot; both were guilty as principals. Hickock's signed statement blamed Smith for all four; Smith's first account had Hickock shooting Nancy and Bonnie, and he later asked to take all four himself but signed neither version. The sequence inside the house is taken from the Kansas Supreme Court's 1961 judgment only. Neither man was ever charged over the Walker murders; the 2013 DNA result was inconclusive and the lab work has since been found contaminated. We have named nobody else. Capote's account of the night is attributed to him wherever it appears. The two versions of the last words are as reported by the wire services and by Capote; Phillip Tompkins's 1966 witnesses are the source for the claim that Capote did not hear them. The 1965 wire text was reached through a secondary source. On Bonnie Clutter's health we report only what her family said in 2005 and what Capote wrote. The daughters' letter and interviews are from the Lawrence Journal-World, 2005. As of September 2026 the KBI investigative file has not been released; the Nye notebooks were published in 2019.   SOURCES State v. Hickock and Smith, 188 Kan. 473 (1961): law.justia.com/cases/kansas/supreme-court/1961/42-068-0.html Hickock v. Crouse, 334 F.2d 95 (10th Cir. 1964): law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/334/95/108910/ State ex rel. Schmidt v. Nye, Kansas Court of Appeals, 2019: law.justia.com/cases/kansas/court-of-appeals/2019/118666.html New York Times, 16 Nov 1959, "Wealthy Farmer, 3 Of Family Slain" (NYT archive) George Plimpton, "The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel", NYT, 16 Jan 1966 (NYT archive) Garden City Telegram, 16 Nov 1959 and 4 Jan 1960; AP, 30 Mar 1960 and 8 Apr 1965 Kansas Memory, Hickock and Smith inmate files and execution witness list: kansasmemory.gov/item/208965 Lawrence Journal-World, "In Cold Blood: A Legacy", 3 to 5 Apr 2005 (Patrick Smith, Melissa Lee, Van Jensen) Kevin Helliker, Wall Street Journal, 8 Feb 2013, and On the Media, 15 Feb 2013 Phillip K. Tompkins, "In Cold Fact", Esquire, June 1966; Purdue oral history, 2015 Casey Cep, Furious Hours (2019); Gerald Clarke, Capote (1988); Too Brief a Treat (2004) Tampa Bay Times / CBS News, 6 Feb 2023, and ABC News, 14 Aug 2013, on the Walker case   SUPPORT This episode describes the murder of a family including two children, and discusses capital punishment. If you need to talk to someone: New Zealand, call or text 1737. Australia, Lifeline 13 11 14. 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.

    E59 | In Cold Blood | Part One of the Book Series

  3. 31 Aug

    E58 | Who turned off the light? The disappearance of Eloise Worledge (AUS)

    In January 1976, eight year old Eloise Worledge went to bed in her family's home on Scott Street, Beaumaris. Her father looked in on her at 11:40pm. At 7:30am her younger brother and sister woke their parents to say Ella was not in her room. The flyscreen on her window had been cut and rolled back, but forensic examination found the cut was made from the inside, the dust and cobwebs undisturbed, and the scene staged. Fifty years on, Eloise has never been found, nobody has been charged, and a coroner's open finding is the only formal answer anyone has. IF YOU KNOW SOMETHING On 13 January 2026, the fiftieth anniversary, Victoria Police announced a reward of up to $1 million. It is offered at the discretion of the Chief Commissioner of Police for information leading to the discovery of Eloise's remains, or the apprehension and subsequent conviction of the person or persons responsible. Police say it is currently the only reward of its kind in Victoria because it pays for the recovery of remains, not only for a conviction. The Director of Public Prosecutions may grant an informant indemnity from prosecution. The investigation remains open with the Victoria Police Missing Persons Squad. Police believe Eloise was murdered. Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 Confidential online report: crimestoppersvic.com.au You do not have to give your name. A NOTE ON SOURCING Nobody has ever been charged over Eloise Worledge's disappearance. Her parents, Lindsay and Patsy Worledge, were treated as suspects from the first days and lived under public suspicion for decades. No evidence implicating either was ever found. A 2001 cold case review found none, and Victoria Police have since told the family they have concluded the parents were not involved. Lindsay died in 2017 and Patsy in 2022, before that conclusion was conveyed. Alistair Duncan Webster, named in this episode, died in 2020. He had convictions for sexual offences in 1953, 1970 and 1972. He was never charged over Eloise Worledge, and no court or coroner has found he had any involvement. The case for examining him is ABC journalist Russell Jackson's, and Jackson states he found circumstantial evidence and coincidences but nothing definitive. Police say they cannot comment on individuals. The Board of Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School reported in February 2024 and found no connection between Eloise's disappearance and the abuse at the school. Coroner Frank Hender's 2003 finding is not published online, so we worked from contemporaneous reporting of it. The 631 page police coronial brief is not public. Some widely repeated details about that night could not be traced to a source and were left out. The argument in Part Two that a staged window is equally consistent with an intruder misdirecting the search is the host's own analysis, not any investigator's finding. SOURCES Victoria Police cold case, missing person and reward pages, police.vic.gov.au Board of Inquiry into Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Beaumaris Primary School and Certain Other Government Schools, final report, Chair Kathleen Foley SC, February 2024 Russell Jackson, ABC News, 11 and 14 January 2026 ABC News, 13 January 2026 and 7 July 2003 Australian Women's Weekly, January 2026 SUPPORT This episode deals with the abduction and presumed murder of a child, and with historical child sexual abuse. New Zealand: 1737 call or text. Safe to Talk 0800 044 334. Family violence 0800 456 450. 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.

    E58 | Who turned off the light? The disappearance of Eloise Worledge (AUS)

  4. 30 Aug ·  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)

  5. 30 Aug

    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)

  6. 27 Aug ·  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)

  7. 27 Aug ·  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)

  8. 25 Aug • 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
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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
    65
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Ryan Wolf
  • Show Website
    The Veil
  • Provider
    Brevity Studios

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