Motive & Method

In 2007, four people vanished from a remote town in Western Australia - leaving behind an abandoned home, a cryptic note and a trail of unanswered questions.
At the centre of the mystery was a self-styled spiritual leader, who had built an online doomsday cult. Over the past 20 years, as desperate family, police and coroners examined theories ranging from suicide pacts to staged disappearances, the truth behind the so-called “Nannup Four” only became more disturbing.
In this episode, ABC journalist Dominique Bayens - behind the investigative podcast ‘Expanse: The Nannup Four’ - joins Tim and Xanthe to examine this mystery, and discuss the disturbing psychology behind what has become one of Australia’s strangest and most unsettling cult cold cases.
You can listen to the whole series by Dominique Bayens here: “Expanse: The Nannup Four”
Watch our full video episodes on Youtube on the Crime Central Australia channel.
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In this bonus episode, Tim and Xanthe sit down with MP Jeremy Buckingham, the driving force behind the parliamentary inquiry examining some of Australia’s most notorious unsolved murders and missing persons cases.
Buckingham reveals what sparked his decade-long push for answers, the systemic failures families say have left them abandoned and why he believes these cases deserve fresh scrutiny. He also explains what changes could come from the inquiry - and why families believe this may be their best chance yet at answers and accountability.
More episodes of Australia's Killer Secrets coming soon...
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A three-year-old disappears. A teenager confesses. Yet more than five decades later, Cheryl Grimmer’s family is still fighting for justice.
Cheryl Grimmer vanished from a beach change room in 1970, and despite a detailed confession decades later, no one has ever been held accountable for her murder. In this powerful interview, Cheryl’s brothers, Paul Grimmer and Ricki Nash, share the devastating impact her disappearance has had on their family and their decades-long fight for justice.
They raise troubling questions about missed investigative opportunities, a confession that was ultimately ruled inadmissible, and why they believe authorities failed to properly pursue Cheryl’s case. More than 50 years on, they continue to demand answers and the chance for their little sister to finally have her day in court.
More episodes of Australia's Killer Secrets coming soon...
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What if Ivan Milat’s first victim was killed more than two decades before the backpacker murders?
Keren Rowland was 5 months pregnant when she was brutally murdered and hidden in a pine forest in 1971. In this episode, Tim & Xanthe sit down with Keren's brother Steve Rowland and former UK detective Hugh Hughes.
They detail years of fighting for answers, alleging police ignored crucial leads, withheld information and failed to properly investigate Milat despite mounting evidence linking him to Keren’s murder.
More than 55 years on, the family is still asking the question that haunts this case: if police had done more back then, could Ivan Milat have been stopped before his backpacker killing spree began?
More episodes of Australia's Killer Secrets coming soon...


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A twin brother's 47-year fight for answers, suspicious letters and a new witness who may hold the key to where Kay Docherty is buried.
In this episode, Kevin Docherty shares the heartbreaking story of his sister Kay Docherty, who vanished alongside her friend Toni Cavanagh in 1979. Nearly five decades on, Kevin recalls the night they disappeared, the suspicious letters sent to their families days later, and the long fight for answers after police initially treated the case as a runaway.He also reveals new information from a recently emerged witness that may not only point to Ivan Milat, but to a potential burial site that has never been searched.
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