Civilian Sleuths

Alethea
  • 5.0 (1)
  • TRUE CRIME
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

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.

  1. Mary Anne Fagan - The Best Lead

    4D AGO

    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 Dandenong Road. He reported it to police less than 24 hours later. Detectives called it their best lead. A statewide investigation followed. RAAF bases across Victoria were searched. Identity parades were conducted. A photofit was published nationally. And then the investigation changed direction. This instalment walks through the witness sightings, the timeline, and the institutional shift that moved detectives away from the man in uniform — despite two independent witnesses placing him on Dandenong Road that afternoon. Content warning: This series discusses sexual violence and the murder of a mother of five. This episode includes references to post-mortem examination and children discovering their mother after her death. Listener discretion advised. If you have information, contact Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or police.vic.gov.au/crime-stoppers. The reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction is $1,000,000.

    28 min
  2. Mary Anne Fagan - The Man Who Walked Out The Front Gate

    APR 27

    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 Road, Armadale. By mid-afternoon, she was dead. This episode follows the investigation from the moment police arrived — through sixteen months of forensic examination, witness statements, and formal inquiry — to the only findings the evidence could support. What was established. What was not. Who came forward — and who did not. The lead described by the head of Homicide as the most significant — and where it led. Because at approximately 12:10pm that day, a man was seen leaving through the front gate - and he was never publicly identified. Content warning: This series discusses sexual violence and the murder of a mother of five. This episode includes references to post-mortem examination and children discovering their mother after her death. Listener discretion advised. If you have information, contact Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or police.vic.gov.au/crime-stoppers. The reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction is $1,000,000.

    49 min

  3. APR 13

    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 been charged. That morning, she got her children off to school, spoke to her husband on the phone, and set up the bathroom to dye her hair. A few hours later, three of her children came home from school. The door wouldn't open. Civilian Sleuths returns to coronial records, witness statements and contemporaneous reporting to reconstruct the morning minute by minute — from the council work crew on the corner, to the neighbour who saw Mary Anne drive past, to the uniformed man seen leaving the house just after midday. Someone saw something that day. Someone still knows. If you have information, contact Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000. Content Warning:  This episode discusses the murder of a woman in her home, including children discovering their mother. Listener discretion is advised.

    28 min

  4. SEASON 2 TRAILER

    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 Dandenong Road, Armadale, while her baby slept in the next room. Three council workers were repairing the road outside. A man in Air Force uniform was seen leaving through her front gate. Her children found her body when they came home from school. No one was ever charged. The case remains open. A $1 million reward remains in place. Civilian Sleuths returns to the original inquest documents, witness statements, autopsy reports, and police records to rebuild her last day minute by minute - and examine what the investigation focused on, and what it may have missed. Series 2 premieres 14 April. Subscribe now. If you have information, contact Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000. Content Warning: This series discusses the murder of a woman in her home. Listener discretion is advised.

    4 min

  5. MAR 16

    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 episodes, this series has placed the evidence under pressure, testing explanations against time, geography, movement, and the physical record. A concealment pattern has been identified. A call sign has been named. And a single investigative thread from 1978 has been laid out in full. In this final episode, the focus shifts — from what happened to Denise McGregor, to who has been living with it ever since. Forensic science has transformed what is possible. DNA profiling, touch DNA, and forensic genetic genealogy — techniques that were science fiction in 1978 — now solve cases once considered permanently closed. The question is no longer whether science can reach the person responsible. It is whether the evidence still exists to allow it. But science is only one path — and it may not be the one that closes this case. If you lived in Pascoe Vale, Strathmore, Broadmeadows, or the northern suburbs of Melbourne in 1978 — if you knew someone who used CB radio, who travelled the roads north, or who went by the call sign Lightning One — what you remember could be the detail that closes this case. The one-million-dollar reward for information remains active.  Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000. Someone has lived an ordinary life while carrying an extraordinary fact.

    32 min
  6. Denise McGregor: She Arranged an Alibi Before She Left

    MAR 2

    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 evening Denise McGregor disappeared, four details were already in place: an alibi arranged in advance, a deviation from her errand, a separation from her sister, and movement away from home. Individually, each can be coincidence. Together, they are not easily explained. Bureau of Meteorology records confirm rainfall across both Pascoe Vale and Wallan that evening. The road where Denise was found was unsealed. It was dark. Someone drove it anyway. The scene indicates activity — not simply disposal. This episode defines the shape that any explanation must fit. Nearly fifty years later, that shape has not been met. If you lived in Melbourne’s northern suburbs in 1978, and something has never quite aligned, it may matter. Content warning: This series discusses the sexual assault and murder of a child. Clinical, non-graphic language throughout. Listener discretion advised. If you have information, contact Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or www.police.vic.gov.au/crime-stoppers

    34 min
  7. Denise McGregor: 30 Unaccounted For Minutes

    FEB 16

    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 1978. Within minutes, she had disappeared. In this episode, possible explanations are tested against the constraints established so far: time, distance, opportunity, risk, and the realities of surviving evidence. Some explanations hold. Others begin to fail. This is not an episode about identifying suspects or assigning guilt. It is an exercise in feasibility — examining what can be ruled out, what remains possible, and why certainty has remained elusive. Because any account of what happened must satisfy the same conditions. And not all of them do. Content warning: This series discusses the sexual assault and murder of a child. Clinical, non-graphic language throughout. Listener discretion advised. If you have information, contact Victoria Police Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or www.police.vic.gov.au/crime-stoppers

    44 min

  8. FEB 12 ·  BONUS

    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 Vale and Broadmeadows in the late 1970s. Some of that material no longer exists anywhere else. Some memories have not been spoken about in decades. This update is both a thank you to those who have contributed so far, and a short explanation of the care being taken as the series continues — including why public accusations, speculation, and naming individuals beyond what is firmly established on the public record are avoided. The priority of this project is to keep Denise McGregor’s case as solvable as possible by protecting witness memory, avoiding theory bias, and being deliberate about how and when expert input is sought. Future episodes examine which explanations could plausibly fit the known constraints — and which do not. If you have memories or material you are unsure about, you are welcome to contact the podcast privately. Any specific information relevant to the case should also be directed to Victoria Police.

    5 min
See All (13)

Trailers

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Alethea
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Civilian Sleuths
  • Show Website
    Civilian Sleuths

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