Sixteen years after two barrels were recovered from tunnels beneath a South Australian reservoir, the science is moving again. In this episode of Sleepers, Bryan Littlely speaks with forensic scientist, toxicologist, and criminologist Asha Walther from Exhuming the Truth about her independent preliminary examination of material recovered from the barrels. Those barrels have long formed part of an investigative theory surrounding the 1973 disappearance of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon from Adelaide Oval. That theory has never been proven, and there is currently no evidence establishing that either girl was ever inside them. But the barrels are real. The material recovered from them is real. And now new preliminary forensic findings are in . Asha reveals that presumptive testing produced a positive reaction consistent with the presence of blood or haemoglobin-related activity. At this stage, the testing cannot determine whether that blood is human or animal, and no DNA identification has been made.…

What if the witness you've been searching for was there all along? In this special episode of Sleepers, investigative journalist Bryan Littlely sits down with Nicole Morris, founder of the Australian Missing Persons Register, during National Missing Persons Week. For 21 years, Nicole has worked to keep Australia's missing visible. Her register contains thousands of long-term missing-person cases, some dating back to the 1930s, and during last year's National Missing Persons Week campaign her Facebook posts reached an extraordinary 45 million people. Because sometimes keeping a photograph, a name, and a story in front of the public is enough to make somebody remember. And this conversation proves it. Bryan and Nicole explore the disappearance of Joanne Butterfield, the importance of listening to the people who actually knew the missing, and why even decades of research don't always produce a simple answer. Then Nicole tells Bryan about Rhonda State, a 20-year-old mother who disappeared after attending a dance…

What happens when someone decides, after years of silence, that it's finally time to tell their story? In this special episode of Sleepers, investigative journalist Bryan Littlely takes listeners behind the scenes of the investigative process itself. You'll hear how one witness's recollection of a hitchhiker seen shortly after Gus Lamont's disappearance led to an unexpected conversation about another missing person, and how that conversation opened the door to an entirely new lead. The second half of this episode follows the real-time journey of information that recently found its way into the Sleepers' investigation. It's a rare opportunity to hear how new material is assessed, why not every lead becomes a case, and why careful listening remains one of the most important tools available to any investigator. If you've arrived here after watching the video shared on Bryan Littlely's Facebook page, welcome. You'll find the direct link to that video HERE Together, the video and this episode explain not just…

This episode contains references to child exploitation, grooming, sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised. What if some of the most important witnesses to South Australia's darkest mysteries were never suspects, police officers or investigators? What if they were simply there? In this episode, Bryan Littlely sits down with Jade, a witness whose teenage years were spent navigating a hidden Adelaide that most people never knew existed. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Jade moved through the city's beats, street communities and underground social networks, encountering people, places and events that would later intersect with some of South Australia's most enduring true crime questions. From warnings passed quietly between vulnerable young people, to recollections of an unsettling upstairs room above a suburban business, Jade paints a picture of an Adelaide operating beneath the surface of everyday life. Along the way, you will hear accounts involving individuals later connected to major public…

This episode contains references to child exploitation, grooming, drugging allegations, sexual abuse, trauma, and strong language. Listener discretion is advised. This interview audio has been altered at the request of the Interviewee. In this episode, investigative journalist Brian Littlely speaks with a person who moved through Adelaide’s hidden social world during the 1970s and 1980s. What begins as a discussion about growing up gay in an era of fear, violence, and secrecy slowly unfolds into something much larger, a portrait of overlapping worlds operating beneath the surface of everyday Adelaide life. The racing scene. The security world. Private gatherings. Powerful men. And the survival masks people built in order to exist within them. As Sleepers moves deeper into its investigation surrounding what became known as The Family, this episode marks a shift away from isolated allegations and toward the broader culture that allowed silence, vulnerability, and fear to thrive. Some claims made in this…

This episode contains references to child exploitation, grooming, drugging allegations, sexual abuse, trauma, and strong language. Listener discretion is advised. This interview audio has been altered at the request of the Interviewee. Sleepers begins a new investigative line into The Family and the wider stories, allegations, witnesses, and unanswered questions surrounding Adelaide in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Max Marten introduces investigative journalist Bryan Littlely, conducting an interview with someone who grew up vulnerable in Adelaide, with fear, secrecy, survival, and terrifying encounters that left them believing they had escaped something far larger than one predator. Some claims made in this interview cannot be independently verified. They are presented as one person’s recollection and lived experience. Thank you to everyone who attended Sleepers Live at the Arkaba Hotel. Your support, your questions, and your willingness to listen help keep this investigation moving. This new direction…

This episode contains confronting material, including references to abuse, trauma, and distressing personal experiences. Listener discretion is advised. What happens when memory doesn’t come back clean? In this episode of Sleepers, we hear from the grand nephew of the monster STAN HART, in an interview that is as fragmented as it is confronting. What unfolds is not a neat narrative, but something far more complex: a series of lived experiences shaped by major trauma, survival, and time. Some claims made in this interview cannot be independently verified. Where relevant, we have made that clear. This episode does not seek to confirm every detail, but it does recognise the weight and courage it takes to speak at all. This is not an easy listen. It wasn't easy for Bryan or Max to produce. But it is an important... very important! As Sleepers continues to dig into South Australia’s most confronting and unresolved stories, this episode marks a shift into territory where truth, memory, and perception don’t always…

In this episode of SLEEPERS, two separate accounts, decades apart, begin to flesh out the pattern. The first comes from a man recalling an experience as a six-year-old boy living directly behind Stanley Arthur Hart's property in Yatina, Regional South Australia. He describes a room called a playroom, a space he was taken into and not allowed to leave. The second account comes from an adult witness who visited the same property years later. What he encountered appeared unusual, even at that time: a sick woman in bed, a floor strewn with wasted medication, a conversation about a caravan, and an attached room, known as a shed, containing jars described as animal specimens. Individually, these are fragments. Together, they raise questions. This episode does not present conclusions. It presents testimony, memory, and environment and examines how spaces can be normalised, explained away, and later understood differently. As Sleepers continues its investigation into cold cases, historical abuse, and unresolved…

In this episiode Bryan Littlely speaks to a woman who knew Stan Hart inside the ordinary spaces of community life. Stamp meetings, tennis courts, and coffee with family. What she describes is not the public persona. It is a locked room... A dying wife living in dim light. A warning whispered: ‘Please don’t come back… it’s bad here for you.’ And a man capable of charm in public and force in private. Through lived experience, this witness reveals the duality she now recognises: a respected community figure who, in her words, was a ‘chameleon’. This episode does not deal in speculation. It deals in memory, pattern, and behaviour and asks whether concealment allowed something darker to operate for decades. If you have information relevant to the matters discussed in SLEEPERS, you can contact us confidentially. Always remember — Fight Like Jo! #SleepersPodcast, #TheChameleon, #StanHart, #SouthAustralia, #TrueCrimeAustralia, #ColdCase ⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and trauma.…

Sleepers returns after a few weeks away, and it doesn’t ease back in. In Family Ties, brothers Mark and Stephen Marshall confront memories that have followed them since childhood. One recalls being lifted onto his brother’s shoulders and told to look inside what was called Poppa’s Jail. The other, decades later, faces that memory . Interviewed by Bryan Littlely, their accounts are raw, fragmented, and deeply unsettling, not because of what they claim, but because memory, denial, and family silence collide. This episode sets the tone for Season Two: quieter, darker, and driven by testimony that refuses to stay buried. We’ve been away over Christmas, but we haven’t been idle. More interviews. More voices. More threads are already pulling tight. This is only the beginning. ⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised. Support Services 🇦🇺 Australia Lifeline Australia – Crisis Support & Suicide Prevention: 13 11 14 (24/7) Kids Helpline – For young people…

In this final episode of 2025, Sleepers brings you one of the most significant witness accounts ever shared publicly about the disappearance of the Beaumont children. For nearly sixty years, she held her silence. She was a young mother on holiday at Glenelg on Australia Day 1966, sitting on the grass with her children, when a little boy played with her son on their picnic blanket. His name was Grant Beaumont. In this episode, she tells her story. She describes the man she saw with the children, the moment he rose and walked them toward the side shows, and the fear that drove her to flee South Australia the very next day. Her memories are clear, consistent, and unchanged across decades, and now, they become part of the public record. As we approach the 60th anniversary of the Beaumont disappearance on Australia Day 2026, this testimony raises new questions about old assumptions, long-dismissed leads, and the urgent need for renewed investigative action. Sleepers will continue in 2026, examining not only the…

In Episode 10, we mentioned Hannah, a survivor whose childhood memories may hold a crucial piece of the Beaumont investigations. In this episode, you hear her voice for the first time. Hannah takes us inside the threats, the fear, and the world of Les Davis as she lived it from the age of six. She speaks about photographs, a white dress, digging in underground tanks, and the moments that shaped the trauma. Details she has carried, unchanged, for decades. Then, for the first time, her older sister Rachael steps forward as a second corroborating witness. Rachael independently confirms the fear in the household and the danger their father repeatedly tried to report to the police. She also brings new insight into Les’s behaviour, movements, and the patterns that now appear impossible to dismiss. Two sisters. Two perspectives, inside and outside. One story that aligns across time, memory, and lived experience. This is not rumour. This is not speculation. This is raw, consistent, and long overdue. testimony . ⚠️…

In this milestone episode, Sleepers uncovers the most confronting revelations yet about Les Davis, a man whose name has sat on the edge of South Australia’s darkest stories for sixty years. Through the voice of Kane Davis, Les’s own grand-nephew, we hear the first-ever family account of a figure long hidden from the public record. His movements, his crimes, his aliases, and his presence at Glenelg during the Beaumont Investigations all begin to form a pattern that can no longer be dismissed. Then Bryan and Brad break down the details that have never seen daylight: Confirmed multiple identities Direct overlap with known offenders New locations, timelines and witness confirmations A behaviour profile that matches historical suspects Evidence and photographs that disappeared from public view Episode 10 also brings a significant breakthrough: The first known arrest photographs of Les Davis were taken in 1952 at just nineteen years old. These images, presented alongside the Beaumont identikit, reveal a likeness…

Sleepers: The Adelaide Oval Abductions #9 In 1973, seven-year-old Donna was at the Adelaide Oval the day Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon disappeared. She played with two little girls outside the toilets. Then they were gone. Police interviewed Donna soon after, took her statement, and promised to follow up on the matter. They never did. For fifty years, her memories sat alone until now. In this episode, Donna shares what she saw that day, what she later learned about her own father, and how her life became entangled with the family of the man long suspected of taking those girls — Stanley Arthur Hart. Her testimony reveals a chilling web of names, methods, and silences stretching across generations: A father who used hypnosis like Hart once did. A grandson who repeated the same violence. Families whose lives kept circling the same dark secret. It’s not coincidence. It’s connection. And as this web tightens, the pattern of South Australia’s hidden crimes begins to take its true shape. Hosted by Bryan…

Episode 8 of Sleepers takes listeners back to Yatina, the remote mid-north town in South Australia, where truth and terror share the same ground. In conversations with journalist Bryan Littlely, the survivor of the 1966 assault that ultimately led to the only prison time that Stanley Arthur Hart ever served, they recall growing up in Stan Hart's orbit, a man they would both quickly realise was the monster hiding in plain sight. From their first memories of the terror to the police investigations and successive governments that failed them, their stories reveal the human cost of silence and the strength it takes to speak after so long. Max Marten’s narration traces how a 2013 call to police set off the SAPOL Major Crime dig, how other survivors’ voices converged, and how two adjoining properties in Yatina have become a symbol of everything South Australia still refuses to confront. As the final minutes unfold, one quiet statement from Amanda stops everything cold: ‘That wasn’t my shoe.’ A phrase that reopens…

Warrior Women, #1 In this episode of SLEEPERS, the silence is broken by voices that can no longer be ignored. Three Warrior Women, survivors, witnesses, and sisters, step forward to reveal what they saw, what they lived through, and what was covered up. Their accounts point deeper into the shadows of Stanley Arthur Hart and expose the cracks in systems that failed to protect the innocent. What they share is confronting, unsettling, and impossible to dismiss. And it is only the beginning. The revelations in this series are gathering momentum. What lies ahead will challenge everything you thought you knew about the Adelaide Oval abductions. SLEEPERS is not just unearthing the past. It is forcing the truth into the light. ⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised. 🌏 Support Services 🇦🇺 Australia Lifeline Australia – Crisis Support & Suicide Prevention: 13 11 14 (24/7) Kids Helpline – For young people aged 5–25: 1800 55 1800 (24/7) Blue Knot…

In this episode of Sleepers, survivor Paul Cornelius speaks publicly for the first time about his abuse at the hands of disgraced magistrate Peter Liddy. His story shines a light on the hidden networks of power that thrived in South Australia through the 1970s and ’80s, linking surf clubs, politics, and the dark underbelly of Adelaide’s so-called establishment. Cornelius’s testimony doesn’t just revisit Liddy’s crimes; it connects to Stan Hart’s network, our prime suspect in the abduction and murder of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon. Paul's experience draws new lines to convicted offender Tony Munro. His account also reopens the trail to Steve Williams, Gypsy Jokers president, who vanished after revealing too much. Snakes in the Grass is a story of survival and exposure, a reminder that the dangers were never just on the streets, but in the institutions meant to protect us. ⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses child sexual abuse and trauma. Listener discretion is advised. 🌏 Support Services 🇦🇺…

In our first-ever Sleepers forum episode, the public steps forward, and the ripple effect is undeniable. From firsthand memories of the Adelaide parklands to lost police reports, overlooked sightings, and new connections to persons of interest, this is the episode where long-held silence begins to crack. You’ll hear directly from listeners, ordinary people with extraordinary insight, who may hold the missing pieces that were never pursued, never filed, and never followed up on. As new witness names surface and old suspicions are re-examined, the question becomes unavoidable: Were we told the whole story in 1973? Or were key voices left out? The Sleepers are waking. It's time to rise - #fightlikejo Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For over 50 years, Alex Bone’s name was absent from the record, omitted from the inquest, ignored in official files, and unknown even to Joanne Ratcliffe’s own sister. But Alex was there. He went to the football with the Ratcliffes. He searched for Jo and Kirste that afternoon. And, in this episode, he finally tells his story. This is not just a recollection, it’s a revelation that challenges everything we thought we knew about the Adelaide Oval abduction. From a timeline that no longer holds to police being denied access to key areas of the Oval, unknown Bones uncovers details long buried, and asks the questions no one else has. Because when the official story doesn’t match the lived truth… It’s time to listen to the voices left behind. Abbreviations & Explanations ACB = The Australian Cricket Board - the governing body of all cricket matters in Australia. COPPERS = Australian slang for Police FAT CAT = Fat Cat was a popular children's television program for South Australian Children. FAT CAT CAME ON =…

In this powerful episode of SLEEPERS, we bring you the harrowing story of Alfredo Paglia, known to all as FRED. A survivor who has spent more than a decade trying to make his voice heard. Fred's experience is not just personal; it’s deeply connected to the broader investigation into the Adelaide Oval abduction of Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon. He names names, maps connections, and details an alleged network of abuse that, until now, has remained mainly in the shadows. With raw honesty and unwavering courage, Fred recounts the times he stepped forward to the police, to the powers that be, and the responses he received. He speaks not with bitterness, but with determination. And in doing so, he becomes a voice for many still waiting for justice. Alongside our growing team of researchers, Bryan Littlely and Max Marten explore the significance of Fred’s revelations and the patterns of inaction that have haunted this case for decades. This is not just another interview. It’s a call to remember. A call to act.…

We had planned for this episode to focus on what is known about our prime suspect, Stan Hart. But two days after Sleepers Episode 1 dropped, everything changed. Out of nowhere came an extraordinary interview with Anthony Kilmartin, the then 13-year-old boy who stood just metres away from the man who abducted Joanne Ratcliffe and Kirste Gordon from Adelaide Oval in 1973. Anthony isn’t just a witness. He’s the witness. The only person to see the abductor’s face up close and give the description that built the first identikit image in the case. For decades, his voice was largely absent from public view, until now. In this raw, unfiltered conversation recorded just days ago, Anthony shares the details still burned into his memory half a century later, the sounds, the faces, and the moment that changed everything. This is why sleepers is different. We’re not just telling you a story; we’re in the middle of a journalistic investigation, speaking directly to the people who lived it, and putting you in the room with…

The Adelaide Oval Abduction - how it started... On August 25, 1973, 11-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe and 4-year-old Kirste Gordon left their seats during a football match at Adelaide Oval… and never came back. Despite thousands of witnesses, multiple sightings, and decades of investigation, their disappearance remains one of South Australia’s darkest mysteries. In this opening episode of sleepers, investigative journalist Bryan Littlely and producer Max Marten take you back to that spring afternoon — the bustling crowd, the frantic search, and the chilling last images of the girls seen with a strange man in a 1950s-style fedora. We explore police theories, forgotten leads, the flawed identikit sketch that shaped the case, and the long shadow this crime cast over a community already haunted by the Beaumont children’s disappearance just seven years earlier. This is where sleepers begins: with two little girls, a stadium full of people, and a predator who vanished into the noise of a football crowd. Fifty years on,…