Turned Up Dead

The Murder of Nadine Abruas

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 10:45:00 +0000

In the morning of December 31 2014, an unknown man started calling the Future Inns hotel in the city of Cardiff, Wales claiming that someone was dead in their hotel. ‘There’s a woman dead in the room 203,’ he told them. The caller didn't give his name but called a total of four times. When asked for more information, he replied, ‘Well the girl, the girl. 28 years old. A Muslim girl, we was together there in hotel and she kill herself.’

Episode sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/nadine-abruas

The Murder of Lisa Bennett

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 13:15:47 +0000

In May 2013, Lisa Bennett's mother, Janet, was becoming increasingly concerned about her whereabouts. Lisa was Janet's oldest of two daughters and 39 years old at the time. Lisa grew up in the town of Burton-on-Trent in the English midlands and had moved 30 miles away to Birmingham, the UK's second-largest city.

In England, the number of homeless people had risen year by year from 2010 - 2013 and that year, Lisa Bennett was one of an estimated 185,000 people without a home, and like a significant number of those 185,000 people, she had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction.

Sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/

The Murder of Katie Rackliff

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 04:03:07 +0000

In June 1992, Katie Rackliff was a 19-year-old apprentice hairdresser at Bumbles Too salon in the southeast of England. Katie had been showing great promise in her career, but she had been experiencing a few difficulties in her personal life...

Content warning: brief mentions of domestic abuse, animal abuse and self-harming.

Episode sources: turnedupdead.com

The Murder of Jodi Jones: Is Luke Mitchell Guilty? Part 2

Mon, 09 May 2022 09:29:58 +0000

While everyone can agree that the murder of 14-year-old Jodi Jones is inexcusable, the conviction of Luke Mitchell, who was her 14-year-old boyfriend, is polarising.

Content warning: Although not in any detail, this episode briefly mentions sexual assault.

Petition for an independent review of the case against Luke Mitchell: https://www.change.org/p/the-lord-advocate-the-case-of-luke-mitchell-requires-a-full-independent-review

The Murder of Jodi Jones: Is Luke Mitchell Guilty? Part 1

Mon, 09 May 2022 09:13:01 +0000

While everyone can agree that the murder of 14-year-old Jodi Jones is inexcusable, the conviction of Luke Mitchell, who was her 14-year-old boyfriend, is polarising.

Content warning: Although not in any detail, this episode briefly mentions sexual assault.

Petition for an independent review of the case against Luke Mitchell: https://www.change.org/p/the-lord-advocate-the-case-of-luke-mitchell-requires-a-full-independent-review

The Murder of Alex Woodworth

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 11:12:17 +0000

On the afternoon of March 22, 2018, a young woman arrived at a remote farmhouse in Dunn County, Wisconsin. She had dried blood around her mouth and on her arms and hands. Her clothes were covered in mud, her trousers torn, and her feet were bare. She rang the doorbell rapidly, several times. When 89-year-old dairy farmer Don Sipple answered, she said she needed to be taken to hospital. On seeing the state she was in, the elderly man brought the stranger inside and called 911.

The woman claimed she had been attacked, but she couldn’t remember anything - not even her name.

The concerned farmer had no idea that the young woman sitting in his home was a persistent liar and, if the jury got it right, a calculated killer.

Resources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/

The Murders of Sumarti Ningsih and Seneng Mujiasih

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 14:30:00 +0000

In the early hours of November 1, 2014, British resident, Rurik Jutting, called the police three times to report that something had happened in his apartment on the 31st floor. At one point he claimed that special forces were surrounding him and at 3:42 am, he asked for police to come and investigate.

As police headed toward the residence, Jutting, a vice president for Bank of America in Hong Kong, called his office. He warned a superior, ‘I am in a lot of trouble, you need to do something about the reputation of the bank.’

Police arrived at the building, which is only a 10-minute walk from Hong Kong’s infamous red-light district. As officers entered the building, there were no special forces operatives in, or out of sight, but police might have noticed a smell. Over the last few days, residents in the highrise had begun to notice a bad odor; like a dead animal in the building.

Did The Husband Do It?

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 09:00:00 +0000

Content warning: This episode mentions suicide and the death of an unborn baby.

At around 4:40pm on June 4th 1992, Norman Edward Gilfoyle arrived home from work. He didn't see his wife, Paula Gilfoyle, in their home but he noticed a letter from her in the kitchen.

After reading just the first few lines of the two page letter, Eddie stopped reading and took it to his parents’ house.

The first two lines read, ‘Dear Eddie. I’ve decided to put an end to everything and in doing so ended a chapter in my life that I can’t face up to any longer. I don’t want to have this baby that I’m carrying. I wish now that I’d got rid of it.'

Sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/eddie-paula-gilfoyle/

If you are feeling depressed and are having suicidal thoughts, please reach out for help.

UK: 0800 58 58 58 or text SHOUT to 85258.

USA: 1-800-273-8255

Australia: 13 11 14

Bonus: Christopher Vaughn's Remembered Account

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 07:15:00 +0000

In this bonus episode I look at a letter written by Chris Vaughn; a man convicted and sentenced to four consecutive life terms for the murders of his wife, Kimberly, and children, Abigayle, Cassandra, and Blake, and share my opinion on the truthfulness of the account he gave in it.

Lynne Trenholm

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 08:49:29 +0000

Around 9:45pm on Sunday June 9 1991, a cleaner entered an upstairs room of Pinky's massage parlor in Boughton, Chester.

Inside, laying in a pool of blood, was the semi-naked body of a woman in her late 20s. She had been stabbed multiple times on the upper half of her body.

Pinky’s, like many similar massage parlor businesses in towns and cities across the UK, was a brothel.

https://prostitutescollective.net/petition/

Episode sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/episode-8-lynne-trenholm/

Ronald Platt

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 14:30:00 +0000

On July 28, 1996, John Copik, a fisherman of 30 years, and his son Craig, were 6 miles off the coast of Teignmouth, a picturesque town in the south-west English county of Devon. After two disappointing hauls, the father and son had taken their trawler further out to an area that wasn’t often fished known as the roughs.

The move paid off and around 3:30pm, the men started to pull in their heaviest load of the day, however, any positive feelings the men had sunk when amongst the fish, the fully dressed body of a middle aged man slid out of their nets and onto the deck.

Episode sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/ronald-platt/

Anthony, Daniel, Gabriel & Jack

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 11:55:00 +0000

On the cool cloudy morning of Saturday 20th September 2014, Barbara Denham was taking her border collie, Max, on his daily walk in Barking, East London. They walked through a gate and into the grounds of St Margaret's Church, as they would usually do but it was then that Barbara noticed a slim young man sitting, sort of propped up, against the churchyard wall. As she got closer, she could barely believe it; the young man was dead.

Now, this would be shocking enough for anyone to stumble across, but just 23 days earlier Barbara, whilst walking her dog Max in the same churchyard had discovered another body of another slim young man, leaning against the same part of the wall in almost the exact same position.

Sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/anthony-daniel-gabriel-jack

The Assassination of Thomas Gilbert Sr

Fri, 28 May 2021 11:55:00 +0000

In the afternoon of Sunday January 4th 2015, a woman dialled 911 from her stylish Manhattan apartment. She calmly gave the address, the cross streets, the apartment number and floor, and then when asked what the emergency was she replied, 'My husband is, I think dead.'

Episode sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/the-assassination-of-thomas-gilbert-sr/

The Brighton Trunk Murders

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 01:03:38 +0000

On the afternoon of Sunday 17 June, William Vinnicombe and James Lelliot were working in the left luggage room of Brighton train station on the south coast of England. It was the beginning of summer and with little fresh air circulating the room, the men had been trying to locate the source of an increasingly offensive smell. Around 4pm, they came across a new-looking, but cheap, brown suitcase...

Episode sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/the-brighton-trunk-murders/

The Callous Murder of Aaron-Pajich Sweetman

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 06:00:00 +0000

In a supermarket in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, employee Matthew was stacking shelves on his first day back at work after a holiday when his supervisor, Jemma Lilley, approached him. 'I did it,' she told him. When he inquired what she had done. Jemma Lilley replied, 'I did it - I killed someone.'

Episode Sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/the-callous-murder-of-aaron-pajich-sweetman/

The Calculated Murder of Joanne Nelson

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:00:00 +0000

When detective superintendent Ray Higgins saw Paul Dyson's image appear on the tv screen, he must have felt somewhat surprised because he had no idea that Dyson, the fiance of the woman whose disappearance he was currently investigating, was going to give the appeal that he was currently watching live on his local news channel...

PETITION Stop Serial Domestic Violence Perpetrators and Stalkers Abusing Multiple Women: https://www.change.org/p/boris-johnson-prime-minister-stop-serial-perpetrators-and-stalkers-abusing-multiple-women

Episode Sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/the-calculated-murder-of-joanne-nelson/

The Killing of 5-Year-Old Ashley Zhao

Wed, 06 Jan 2021 06:00:00 +0000

On Monday 9th January 2017, around 6:00 pm, 911 dispatch in northeast Ohio get a call from a man who says that he needs help. When asked what’s going on, the man says that his 5-year-old daughter has gone missing from the restaurant that he and his wife own and operate.

Episode Sources: https://www.turnedupdead.com/the-killing-of-ashley-zhao/