Wow! I can not believe judges in Australia can have so much opinion or can infuse their own Defense of a defendant?! I thought the judge did a better job of getting John perros off then his defence lawyer! Isn’t that a biased trial?! This guy should get another trial on the basis that the judge himself biased against the victim! Unbelievable! Shameful!
The creators do understand followed listen to every episode? Why is 85% of the most recent episode recycled material? Feels like a money grab and completely unnecessary.
Words could never adequately express my respect and admiration for each person who has had any part of this podcast. Shandee has gone from victim to HERO for countless number of victims in the past, present and future. If not for Shandee, none of these unfathomable things done in the darkness would have ever been brought out into the sunlight for ALL the world to see. It only takes a spark to get a fire going. Shandee was the spark and you all are the fire.
My prayer is for justice, restitution, vindication, and that the lawsuit is turned on its head and John Peros is awarded karma instead of money.
It is truly an honor to listen to Shandee’s family, Hedley, Dr. Kirsty Wright, Claire, Matthew, David, and all other contributors who have made sure Shandee didn’t die in vain.
Amy Minter-Alabama, USA
I have listened for quite awhile to the Lady Vanishes podcast and came across this one in my feed. I’m from the U.S. and not only do I absolutely love your accents but the stories both about Shandee and Marion are fascinating and also sad. I’m hooked. I don’t quite understand Aussie criminal Justice system but I’m sort of digging how you all do things. Great pod!
Four stars because every week we’re forced to listen to Matthew’s horrendous, irrelevant, self important bloviating. Why we need to listen to this dreary man drawing increasing questionable and flowery parallels that seem to serve only his desire to frame himself as some kind of cultured orator I will never understand. He was at it in the teacher’s trial and he’s only gotten worse since. Reel his excruciating nonsense in, I beg of you.
Let me start by saying my experiences so far with any podcast done by Mr. Thomas have been great. The Teacher’s Pet was fabulous and I’m loving the The Teacher’s Trial and the trial coverage. The Night Driver was excellent.
This podcast has been a little different. I started the first episode a few times and didn’t finish for some reason, I think it was hard to get into at first and I kind of forgot about it in the massive list of other true crime podcasts I listen to. But I was reminded of it again when The Teacher’s Trial started, so I went back to listen and gave myself some time to get through the first episode and on to the next few. It was keeping my attention up until the Willy D episode. All of a sudden, everything inexplicably went in a weird direction that was confusing, away from John Peras. I know it was said that John was acquitted, so I hung in there for other explanations. After talking about Willy D for an episode, suddenly we’re switched back to John and meticulous detailed reading of texts back and forth between him and Shandee. I think maybe we could have just gotten the gust of them after reading some. It was tedious after awhile. And then on to DNA that went back to reference Willie D again and sort of shifting timelines and confusion and it became very hard to follow. I found myself wanting to skip episodes to get past some of that, but I was afraid I’d miss out on important info. So I basically came to a standstill and decided to join the Facebook group. From the group it appears that things have been reopened and there is evidence coming out possibly regarding Willy D that makes me want to go back and try to finish it.
But maybe take this as constructive criticism, since I rave to people about your other podcasts and I came to read reviews to see if anyone had struggled as well and left a review (possibly in lieu of bailing) and I did see a few, so I know I’m not alone.
Hedley and The Australian do the genre right. Good interviews, no pontificating, no nonsense and great updates. I’m in the States and wish our podcasters here would get on the more professional side and do their podcasts like these. Well-done and keep up the good work!
No one in the US does the job that Headley does. He is an incredible advocate for women and is willing to work hard and go deep so that women can have an equal chance at justice. Great podcast.
This was overall an entertaining and compelling podcast. It is quite a soap opera. One can infer a lot about our societal ills and inter-class conflicts from the story line. A few thoughts…
The narration is often overly dramatic to the point of being maudlin — a more objective tone would help.
As for objectivity — the podcast is baldly biased against John Peros. While there is some time spent on defining the burden of proof (“beyond a reasonable doubt”) with respect to the criminal trial, I didn’t hear the legal thresholds described for the coroner’s inquest — I admit that maybe I missed it. In any case, hearing the narrator have all the doubts and misgivings about the common law are kind of humorous; he seems like the kind of lefty who would, under different circumstances, be very grateful for the protections afforded the accused. I suspect he has enough legal background to know why those protections exist; and I suspect he is deliberately obtuse about them to curry favor with what he assumes is an “ignorant” audience.
Finally, as for the audience: we are smart enough to understand legal nuance. Also, please don’t be afraid to cut to the chase regarding obvious conclusions (eg the lab incompetence). More facts and less opinion, please. And please: devise a podcast that fully fleshes out all major possible explanations for the crime.
Looking forward to hearing the results of the next round of DNA testing.
gets so deep into the details multiple times, there’s like 2-3 episodes where he or the doctor explains that there was an issue with the dna testing! Plus he goes back and forth on the timeline!
I’ve always loved Hedley Thomas’ work and thoroughly recommend his other documentary podcasts. This one is much longer than the others - 17 x 1 hour episodes - but there’s also an over-reliance on courtroom and police interrogation re-enactments all of which are delivered in the same volume and tonal range, similar indeed to that of the commenter’s delivery. That’s seventeen hours delivered at the same audio bandwidth. Nary a foreign or female voice amongst them. Kidding. There is a least 12 minutes of female specialist interviews. But imagine your 32 year old Aussie couch surfer talking for 17 hours straight. It’s quite monotonous and thus also difficult to follow. After re-listening to several episodes (I’d simply drowned out) in an effort to keep up with the details, I abandoned this series around episode 12.
Hedley is a fantastic journalist. This podcast seems to be as well researched as his others. I highly recommend this podcast and his others, Teacher’s Pet and the Night Driver. I live in CA and am seriously considering subscribing to The Australian so I can have more access to and support his journalism - he’s that good!
Anyone who lives in Australia, particularly Queensland should be outraged and contacting their gov representatives regarding the shocking behavior of the DNA lab. We now know of one murderer who has been acquitted and free to live his life due to their incompetence and ethically corrupt behavior. How many more are out there? Thank goodness for the brilliant scientist who brought this all to light.
Those who are criticizing Shandee - please do some reading into domestic violence and coercive control. John is the perpetrator and Shandee is a victim.
A good story with some good reporting. But it’s hard to follow sometimes. They jump around between topics and times of Shandee’s life. They also spend way too much time on certain topics, (the items that tested negative for DNA when they should have had some.) And a lot of information is repetitive, beyond just a memory jog.
Extremely well done series, with interviews from Shandees’ family and friends, heartbreaking, addressing coercive control and violence against women. Sadly how money can enable monsters from facing any consequences.
My favorite podcaster continues to bring excellent content, making new discoveries and handling delicate situations with respect. Highly recommend listening to this along with his other podcasts!
Like others I am a fan of Thomas. However the agonizing details of the injuries in episode one were salacious and irresponsible. I don’t care that the family approved the details, part of being a journalist is weighing the value of information and showing restraint. There are ways to communicate that it was a particularly brutal crime without slice-by-slice descriptions. I can’t comment on the remaining episodes because I was too sickened to continue.
Love everything about this podcast. He drops episodes quickly and has a very soothing voice for an American. Let’s hope for a second investigation by him!
John and Shandee’s relationship is exhausting to just listen to and in episode 3 her Christmas Eve texts were left out which I think were very important to the story. They were both extremely toxic. How could she say “thank you you’re very much appreciated” when he’s telling her to eff off. He clearly wants nothing to do with her, pays to have her live somewhere else, can’t trust her because of her past (which is VERY understandable) and she just keeps pushing him! Now, that doesn’t mean he should have had her killed if he did (not saying he did) but he should have had changed his number & blocked her!
I do see both sides of it though. He kept telling her to F off and she just kept coming back for more. Hard to hear bust so true of so many relationships
