Morbid - Listener Tales 66

Episode Date: January 27, 2023

Listener Tales 66!!! It's like route 66 but completely different. This installment of Listener Tales includes a tale about those hellacious 2016 killer clowns, a grandmother reincarnated into a little brother, a FUCKING wild tale of a flesh pedestrian making their presence known to several campers and so much more!! You guys are the cats meow and we are so obsessed with you!!! If you've got a listener tale please send it in to [e-mail] with "Listener Tale" somewhere in the subject line. Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, weirdos. I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is another morbid. More, more, more, more, more morbid. That's right, because we missed last week, you, yes, you, right there. On the treadmill, pooping, walking your dog, eat in a salad. I see you. A fucking Captain Crunch Slurpee because fuck a salad. Yeah, I see you. You are getting two main episodes this week and a mini because we don't fuck around when it comes to Connors. content creation. Fuck with us. So yeah, we love you guys and you're so supportive and so beautiful and so patient and so wonderful.

And I bet you smell good. So we decided that you deserve two main episodes this week and a mini and you're getting them. So cool. So welcome to a second main episode for this week. Should we tell them what we're going to be talking about? I think we should. Hit them up, Elena.

So let's, okay. So first we were going to, I'm going to be honest with you. At first we were like, we're going to do one main episode. in two minis. We did say that. We did say that initially. And then we were like, wait, we can be better than that. We can. We can be better. We can do better. And then this wonderful, wonderful human from Australia just went and made us be better. So Amanda, this episode is all because of you. So Amanda sent us a fucked up roads, Australia edition, email. And we were like, oh, cool, we're going to do some fucked up roads. And I was like, oh, you know what? Let's do

an all see a dreson of fucked up roads let's do our dursion i know i'm having a moment i'm slap-happy yeah we're we're wicked slap-happy because guess what my daughter is home from the hospital i've been running around this house with balloons oh yeah stickers and i'm so happy she's here auntie ash just made it a homecoming for the ages this vampirina shit all over my house right now it's great his vampirina shit in the trees outside because auntie can't hold up to a fucking balloon like a fucking 23 year old human. But that's neither here nor there. Anyways.

So you know what? So we're slap happy a little bit. But yes, back to Amanda. Ficked Up Roads, Aussie edition. We were thinking we're going to do an Aussie episode of fucked up roads, which we could have done and just like briefly gone over a few Australian fucked up roads. But she sent us one Aussie road. The most fucked up.

The most. And when I started getting into this road, I was like, oh, no, no, no, sir. This deserves its own. its own episode. Yeah. Yeah. So what we're going to do tonight is we're going to talk about Flinders Highway, a.k.a. The Highway of Death.

Don't do. And what we're going to do is we're first going to read Amanda's email that she sent us because we love you, girl. And then I'm going to read you, whoa, that was the paper. I wanted it to be dramatic. Do you think people are going to be like, ouchy? I think they're going to be like ouchy, but you know what the drama was there? And I appreciate it. Thank you.

So then we're going to go over all the crazy-ass shit that happened on this highway. So before we do that, we just have one little tiny little business to take care of. So open up your ears for a second. Okay, fast forward to April 14th when we're in Philadelphia at the Punchline Comedy Club. Hell yeah, we are. Fast forward to the next day in Washington, D.C. when we're at D.C. in Prove. The nation's capital, all up in it. Flash forward a little bit after that, and we're going to be at CrimeCon in Orlando.

Hell yeah, we are. Buy tickets. Use our code. Billy Jensen, are you going to be there? Tell me. I think you guys are best friends. He listens, right? We are. Billy Jensen and I are best friends. He wished your child well. He might not know that, but like, I know that. Now you're not best friends. Way to ruin that. Anyways, after that, May 6, fast forward. We are going to be at standup live, not doing stand up in Huntsville, Alabama. Nope, we're going to be telling true crime. Tell on the crime of true. Telling the crime. We're going to roll tide and war eagle. I was going to say you'd better be inclusive. I am. And anybody else, any other kind of chant. Everything. We're going to do it. Hoo-ha. Then, May 7th early, will be in Nashville, Tennessee at Zanis early. Whoa. Then we're going to be in Nashville again that same night because we're not going to leave. We're going to do a late show.

We are not leaving and you can't make us. I'm Jimmy Kimmel. She's Jimmy Fallon. I can't remember who I like better because I get them confused. You like Jimmy Fallon. I'm Jimmy Fallon. You're Jimmy Kimmel. Cool. I'm into it. June 12th, we're going to be in Chicago. Chicago. Yeah, that was the worst accent that I ever did. And we're going to be at Talia Hall, which is. It is beautiful. It is, and it's so spooky looking. I'm very excited. So, let's talk about Australia now. But also, just to keep your eyes open, because there's going to be some new shows being announced, perhaps. Oh, I don't know. Just wait. But wait, there's more. But wait. But not so there's more.

So let's move on to some Australian madness, shall we? Okay, so this is most of the email that Amanda wrote. We're going to cut some of the middle out. We're so sorry Amanda, but it has like spoilers and such. just don't want to spoil it before we talk about it. But I will give you credit for you brought up all of these things that I will talk about after Ash reads the email was brought to me by Amanda. Yes. Thank you, girl. Brought to you, buy you for you from Amanda. Yes. It says the email. It says fucked up roads. Auxie edition. Highway of death. Ah. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Can I just start by saying hi all the way from Australia? Oh my God. Hi. Hi. You guys are the best and I discovered you when I was working a really harsh job where I was incredibly unhappy and all that helped me through my day was plugging my headphones in and listening to you guys. Holy shit. I'm glad we could be there.

Sweetie. Jobs that you don't like are the worst. Also, I hate when people call other people sweetie, so I'm sorry I did that. The other day, somebody called me hunt at the drive-thru, and I was like, I will come through that speaker. Hate that. Back to the email. This one is a little different to your normal spooky road tales, this one is more scary-ass serial-killing motherfucking Wolf Creek type of road, rather than a spook-spook-haunted road. Love it. This is the crazy-ass stories from the Flinders. Is it Flinders?

Yeah, Flinders Highway in Queensland, Australia. Flinders. To give you some context for this road, it is long and straight and flat. There was a lot of oz. Ash literally just unhinged her jaw and it just wagged around first. Do you want me to do it one more time? Please sue. long. That's so unsettling and I love it. You're welcome. I love it. And straight and flat and deserted.

For reference, it's about the same distance driving from Boston to Pittsburgh random, but I don't want to tell you how long I spent looking that up for all you Americans. I appreciate that. I appreciate that so hard. Yeah, that was really nice. Like so hard. A lot of people don't do things like that, including myself. And I really appreciate it. There are only six towns spread out over this highway miles apart, meaning the travel between, towns is ours and there's nothing, nothing to see. Literally, it is so flat and desolate. I love the word desolate. Doesn't it? It really, it has a nice. I think if I write a book someday, which won't happen, I'll name it desolate. Just desolate. I'll write a book about my childhood, which was desolate. They named desolate. Literally, it is so flat and desolate out there, just you, the road and the flat ass out back. Wow. Steakhouse. There is a small city at one end where I

live, but the rest of the towns are super small, like one horse and one gas station small. Yeah. So when stuff like this happens, it's a big deal since it is so deserted out here. You can go hours without running into another car or truck. So anyway, this is why it's called the highway of death. And then Amanda goes into detail that we're going to give you in just a second. So I'm going to skip forward to the end of the email where she says, I've driven this highway many times. And every time I get freaked out by some serial killer just wolf creaking me into oblivion.

The Outback is a spoopy, spoopy place. I love that she turned Wolf Creek into a verb. I appreciate that wolf creaking. I don't want to say that I've never seen that movie because I bet people will yell at me, but here I am. Yep, I already did. She says, anyway, sorry for how long this is. Love you guys. Maybe visit Australia.

Fuck yeah. Hell yeah. Well, Amanda. And then she wrote us another email that said, I just realized I spent 20 minutes looking up kilometers to miles conversions and finding two American cities to give you the context about the drive so I could be American-friendly. and then in the same email expected everyone to know what Wolf Creek is. Oh, see, she gets it. She gets it. Just in case you don't, it's an Australia horror movie about an Outback serial killer who is based on our real outback serial killer, Ivan Milat. Love you guys.

Also, Amanda, Wolf Creek is a great movie. I saw that movie in theaters. I want to see it. But it's really fucked up, like real fucked up. Okay. Let's talk during the day. I mean, I'm tough. I wish. Sometimes I wish there was video involved in this. I never do. So you could have seen Ash's face when she said, I'm tough. Because it was not tough. I can tell you that.

I'm tough. I'm tough. All right. Wait, wait. I wanted to say like how consider it is Amanda. Oh, first of the other thing I wanted to say, like that just remind me of it. First of all, Amanda, you're amazing for looking that shit up. And giving us two cities, including one of our cities.

And then coming back again and not wanting to leave wolf unseen viewers out. Yeah, I appreciate that. And also I just want to say to like Australia and New Zealand in particular have been like given me such like levity because like everybody in America whenever I say like a state wrong or like a town wrong or a city wrong like literally just implodes. about like it's like the end of days but I have fucked up so many Australian things I am positive of it I have tried my hardest to do an Australian accident accident and it always turns out to be an Australian accident it does it always turns into an Australian accident and you know what I get emails we get emails from Australians that are like you know what that that accent was like a travesty but I loved it and I appreciate you trying and you're wonderful like everybody they're so nice I'd also like

to point out that anybody that has a Boston accent that's not like an actual Boston accent fails miserably at it so you know just saying so I just wanted to say thank you Australia for not yelling at me for fucking up your accent in all your towns and cities I love it so without further ado let's get on to Flinders Highway aka the Highway of Death so Flinders Highway is called The Highway of Deaths. It is North Queensland. It's like around North Queens or includes North Queensland. I just like saying North Queensland because I think...

I also like that you're like stirring an invisible cauldron with your entire handspans. Australia just makes me feel some type of way. I just love it. Maybe we should make this visual. And so this highway has a shit ton of fucking horrific crimes associated with it. Like legit nightmare fuel. At least 12 victims have lost their lives on this stretch of cursed highway. Now, this is at least 12 that, like, have been confirmed and we know of.

Right. Some of them are super old cases. Some of them are as recent as 2017, like the end of 2017. Oh, shit. There are unsolved cases. Some solved. Some missing but declared dead. All others were found and confirmed dead.

Some people think Ivan Malat was responsible for some of it. What do you think? I think he might have been responsible for a couple of these cases, but I'm not positive. They call it like real life Wolf Creek. That's like what is going on here. People think that even right now, people think there is a thrill killer out there just picking people off. Because a lot of these seem like they have connections somewhere, but it does seem like some thrill killer is just doing this shit. Kill to kill.

Yeah, just for the hell of it. Yeah, just for the hell of it. That's so spooky. Now, this first case is a real. bummer. I just want to put it out there real quick. That's why I'm doing it first because I want to get it out of the way. It is not. I mean, they're all a bummer. Should I put the blanket over my head? Yeah, this one's a real big bummer. So this, the two victims in this case were Judith McKay, seven years old. Oh, fuck. And Susan McKay five years old. Oh. They disappeared August 26th, 1970. They were taken from a bus stop near Townsville on their way to school that day around 8 a.m. My kids are never taking the bus. Nope. This story is horrific.

People went nuts and the search went for two full days before anything was found. It was actually a local taxi driver named Ron Brooker that helped searchers because he knew the roads really well. So he said the perp would most likely take like less traveled areas and they were able to find them because of this. Searchers first spotted, for some reason, searchers felt like the wrong word. No, I get that. weird. I don't know why it came out weird. Well, normally we say something like investigator, so maybe that's why. Searchers first spotted not their bodies, but

something that's spelled out that nothing good had happened to them. They saw their school uniforms and socks neatly folded. Oh, I don't like that. As well as their school bags and straw hats just sitting. Straw hats? Yeah. Next to these belongings were their bodies. Oh. Their bodies were located in a dry creek bed. Both of them had been raped and stabbed three times in the chest. Oh my God. Susan had been strangled as the final cause of death. Susan was a five-year-old. Judith had died of asphyxiation. They had both been buried under sand and Judith had been alive when she was buried. And her cause of death was asphyxiation, asphyxiation due to choking on the sand. Oh my God.

Yeah. Obviously people went absolutely fucking nuts. Uh, yeah. The detective who uncovered them said he, he said, quote, he said, quote, I went to pieces. And then he said, don't tell me about brave men. Like, you have not seen what I've seen. Oh, my God. Yeah. One detective on the case, the lead detective, said he wouldn't, he vowed. He was like, I will not go home until this case is solved. And he didn't. He would not go home. He ate all of his food there. His wife brought his food at the station. He refused to go home. After two weeks on the case, he died of a heart attack. Oh, my God. That's how like hardcore this, yeah. Police were offering a $10,000 award, and this is in 1970. Wow. A woman who lived near the bus stop said she saw the girls get into a 63 or 64 brown, holden sedan with a gray or bluish front door. There were barefoot

footprints in the sand that appeared to show the girls played, and they were very well taught not to get into a stranger's car. Uh-huh. So this led a lot of people to believe that they were abducted by someone who knew them. And do you think it's slightly weird that the clothes were folded? It is slightly weird, but like that kind of shit, I feel like that only works sometimes that kind of psychological stuff with this stuff. Because if it's just a maniac, then that stuff means nothing. Right. A gas station worker named Gene Thwait, I believe it was, came forward and told detective John Sanderson, who was working the case, that after seeing the little girl's photos on the news, she remembered seeing them that day. She said the driver was about 30-ish with dark hair.

that was very neat. The girls looked like they had both been crying. Susan was actively crying. She was saying, are we there yet? And then Judith asked, when are you going to take us to mummy? You promised you were going to take us to mummy. Oh my God, my heart. And the guy just snapped, get up on the seat and go to sleep. So I know this like hurts my heart. I'm sorry. Why did you do this to me? I know. This is a big case in this thing. I know it hurts. I just had a week of momming and this is what you're going to fucking do to me. This is rough. She later identified the school uniforms and said definitively that was Judith and Susan. Another witness, Neil Looney, said he had been cut off by someone in traffic.

And he said when he looked inside the car, he saw those two girls. So he also confirmed like this same sighting. The case hit a wall. Nothing happened. They couldn't find any leads after this. It wasn't until 1998. Oh, wow. That Arthur Stanley Brown was brought forth as a possible suspect.

He was a serial pedophile rapist and had allegedly admitted to Judith and Susan's murders twice. Uh-huh. He admitted to, like, random people. Once was in a pub to a random person. Uh-huh. This person went to police and was like, yo, this guy just said he killed them. Right. Nothing happened.

They ignored it. Perfect. Yeah. So far as like, so good. He had worked as a maintenance worker at the school that Judith and Susan had attended. Mm-hmm. Cold case detective started. looking further into him and he was eventually arrested.

Turns out one of his victims, who he had raped, came forward and informed police of several other sexual assaults he had committed on other children. Most of these assaults happened in the same place where Judith and Susan were found. Oh, wow. Yeah, so he obviously liked that area. Right. He was charged with double homicides, six rapes, and 45 sexual assaults in the end. He stood trial October 18, 1999.

but it was a hung jury because evidence of his pedophilia was ruled inadmissible. Why? It's that random shit that they're like, well, you can't talk about that. He's a pedophile because that will sway the jury to think he must have done this. But he is. Exactly. But that shit happens all the time. It's like they won't allow you to put some evidence is inadmissible.

That ends up fucking up a case. That's stupid. I know. It doesn't make any sense. It's like, ugh. So there was a retrial planned for the following year, but it was called. off because Brown was seen as unfit to stand trial because he had dementia. Oh.

He died in 2002 at 89 years old. And never went to jail. Never having really paid for his crimes. Yeah. Perfect. So that's cool. Hate that. He was also suspected in another famous unsolved missing missing kids case, which we're

going to cover on this podcast, like, as its own thing. The Beaumont children, it's a real, that's a really interesting case. Somebody recently requested that. Yeah, everyone from Australia will know that case for sure. He's suspected in that one. Oh. Is that? I hate kid cases.

He was also suspected and we'll talk about it later in the 1975 murder of Catherine Graham, who we're going to talk about later because she also died on this highway. He's suspected in her murder. Brown may also have been involved in another murder we're going to talk about in this episode of Anita Cunningham and Rob. Robin Hoyneville Bartram, who also disappeared on Flinders Highway back in 1972. Wow. So he might be, have been a very busy guy.

Now the next case we're going to quickly go over is the case of Jaden Penno Trompset. Jaden was 22 years old. He was from Birmingham Gardens and he was on a boy's trip to Cairns to go to a New Year's Eve party. I believe it's Cairns. C-A-I-R-N-S. Should we look it up? Cairns? I feel like no one in Australia would yell at me. I don't think so. I think it's Cairns. I agree with you.

Yeah, Cairns. He was driving with his friend Lucas Tatter Sail. This was on December 31st, 2017. Oh, shit. Yeah. You know what's crazy that was like that was like almost four years ago? I know, but it seems like it was like yesterday. I'm like, that was last week. So he had spoken to his mother December 29th and told her he was good. He was looking forward to the trip, the party.

He was like, everything's going good. Yeah. A couple of days later, CCTV footage was found showing him and his friend, Lucas, at a roadside rest stop in Charter's Towers. This was at like 3.30 a.m. on December 31st. So the two eventually got back on the road. They somehow ended up in an argument. Uh-oh. Now remember, they had been on the road for like countless hours and days together at this point. So it's not crazy to think that they started to get on each other's nerve. I mean, like, it happens. Well, sometime during the argument, Lucas pulled over and Jaden stormed off into the night. Oh, no.

This was near a dark and quiet road called Stock Route Road. Mm-hmm. So Lucas drives off because he's pissed. Don't ever leave your friend on the highway. And then he turns around because he's like, well, fuck, I got to be gone. He starts trying to find him, no sign of him anywhere. Oh, shit. He was never seen again.

Oh, my God. And that poor best friend. Well, Lucas reported him missing January 3rd. He said he didn't do it sooner because Jaden had told him that he had outstanding warrants. And so Lucas figured he was just pissed and walked away and reporting him missing could get him some big trouble. So he was like, but after a few days, he was nervous. So he called the police because he was like, I haven't heard from him yet. Okay.

Turns out police later confirmed there was no outstanding warrants for Jail. Yeah, I was going to say that seems like a fishy story. Police did tons of searches via like ground air, but they went door to. a door, they found nothing. The search lasted for three weeks and then was suspended. Officials said that the area was impossible to get lost in because there's so many places to get help. And actually Amanda in her email to us said it seems like it would be very hard to get lost out there because it's like wide open. Okay. His mom, so Jaden's mom, Rachel Payneau, made a ton of trips out to North Queensland to investigate this. She went door to door.

she put together a 20-page dossier for police. Wow. Like, she's serious. She will not stop. As of today, his bank accounts and any other accounts have not been touched. Oh, that's so spooky. Yeah, whenever that happens. It kind of reminds me of, like, Bryce's Lus Visa.

Do you think Luke had something to do with it? I don't know. I would love to believe he didn't because it would really suck to have that hanging over you if you didn't do something. Yeah. It is fishy. Yeah. Well, Rachel says that texts between she and her son are what bother her now, because they were very uncharacteristic of him at the end. He said on December 30th, she wrote, are you okay?

And he wrote back at 7.52 p.m., yeah. And she said, he would have elaborated. He wouldn't have just written me, yeah. Right. Like, that's not, he never answered that one wordy and that bluntly. his cousin said that they got a text from a different number at 9.16 p.m. that night saying, hey, it's Payneau. And that his phone was broken and that the car had broken down so they were like delayed getting started back on the road. And he told him what happened to the car. And then he said

they were going to quote, put the pedal to the medal to make sure they got to the party in time. Yeah. So the cousin wrote back at 1145 p.m. saying, you know, where are you? At 11.59 a.m. on December 31st, he got a reply saying, hey, have you been in contact with Pano since last night? Uh-huh. So then he replied, the cousin replies, and it's like, nah, are you with him? Because the cousin was like, I thought, like, you guys were together, Lucas. And he said, what happened? And have you heard anything? And the reply came back at 2.24 p.m., hey, bro, still haven't been able to contact or find anyone who's seen him.

So it's just like, so he used this person's phone to say we're on the way. Right. Then another person is like, no, I haven't seen him. Like, it's just a weird. It's very fishy. Rachel, the mother, said she also hacked Jaden's Facebook and email afterwards and found scary messages from a local drug dealer that were threatening Jaden. Oh, no.

He was owing some money, and in the emails, they also threatened to hurt his mother. In fact, she claimed one day he had told her not to be home. and when she did return home her screen door was like all ripped up oh my god that's really scary now Lucas the friend that was with him that like stormed away wrote on Facebook because he's obviously getting a lot of heat from people yeah you have something to do that so he wrote on Facebook um I'll just read you a couple snippets from it because it was long I'm sorry to tell you but if someone wants to just up and leave and fuck off then that's what they're going to do you don't understand how hard I tried to help jaden when I was with him and calm him down so we can sort

this out. He is my mate and I'm hurt too. Please stop making out I'm just some heartless prick that left him out there to die. None of you understand my side or the shit that was going on. Like I said to the police, I've been speaking to and the ones who need to know it all have got it. You can make up all the assumptions about me that you want at the end of the day. I know the truth. I want him home to you know. Now tips and updates go through the Jaden Penno Thompson help find. I help find. Facebook page, which is run by his mother Rachel. As of now, no, nothing has been found

and no leads. And that was only a few years ago. Yeah, that's crazy. So that's that case. And again, remember, these are all in the same stretch of highway. Right. So you know. The next one is the Anita Cunningham and Robin

Hoyneville-Bartram case from July 1972. Anita was 19 years old. Robin was 18. They were going to So they were going from Bowen to Melbourne and or Melbourne. That's what they say. Yeah, Melbourne. Right?

Right, Australia? Tell me. Melbourne. They were going from Bowen to Melbourne and they were going to fly but they decided hitchhiking was going to be more fun. They wanted an adventure. It was the 70s. No, like taking off is more fun. I know.

But it's not to me. Well, neither one is fun to me to be honest. I was going to say you'd rather hitchhike. So it was about. in miles from Bowen to Melbourne, it was about 1,550 miles. Okay. So they were going to hitchhike, and they were like, cool, adventure. That's pretty far, huh?

It is. Now, they were both studying to become nurses. They were friends. Yeah. No one ever saw a need again after they started hitchhiking. But four months after they set out on their trips, skeletal remains were found in a dry creek bed under a bridge along Flinders Highway on November 15, 1970. These ravines were identified as Robin.

She had been raped, and a 22 rifle had been used to shoot her twice in the head. Oh, my gosh. No one ever found Anita. She was never seen again. No one has been charged with the murder of Robin. The case was reopened in 2003. There's a reward for $250,000 in immunity from prosecution, but still nothing. Wow.

A former detective named Mick Gern has really back. banked on Ivan Malat being the culprit here. He says that he had witnesses that claim that they went to Mount Isa from Melbourne and then stopped in Pentland where they stayed at the Pentland Hotel. The staff there allegedly told Detective Gurren that the women were hitchhiking with a guy they referred to as cowboy. Sounds like Malat to me. The next place witnesses saw them was at a pub.

Then nothing. That's the end. Wow, that's so spooky. Again, could be Malat, but that asshole wouldn't give up any. anything on his deathbed. In fact, he was literally days from death, and when presented with videos of the victim's loved ones begging to know what happened, he said, quote, people die, they should just get over it. Oh, my God.

Butthole spiders, man. That dude is living a life of butthole spiders right now. And bees with teeth. And bees with teeth and penis flattiners. Ouch. People think a shit stain named John Andrew Stewart could have been also been the guy who did this, he murdered 15 people when he bombed a whiskey

a go-go nightclub in Brisbane on March 8, 1973. He was arrested for that and died in 1979. The reason he was brought into the mix as a possible suspect here is because someone said they met him at the Pentland Hotel

around the time that the girls were there. So this guy met him, chatted with him, they became like friendly, and then found out he was a psycho. Yikes. He said, quote, I left him to a roo shooting. What's roo shooting? Is that like kangaroo shooting?

Oh, maybe. I don't know. I made that up, so I don't know. Like, maybe I'm wrong. That sounds like it. It sounds sad, but it sounds like rue shooting. Go shoot a roo. Oh, go shoot a roo.

Or maybe they were upset with the thickener that they made, so they shot their roo. Get it. I love a good roo. I know. I know you do. I make a great roo. I make a good rue too, but you always tell me I don't make it right. You don't.

I do. You don't. I do. So, quote, I left him to go rue shooting about dusk, and when I got back, I found just about all my gear, including money in 21st birthday presents, was gone. He left something a bit chilling. On the bed, he had neatly laid out a single set of my clothes, laid out like a body. There was a shirt neatly in place under what had that an arranged belt, then a pair of my jeans,

and at the bottom of the jeans, were footwear designed to look like there were feet. them. Ew. Yeah. What is crazy is that some of the clothes that he stole from this guy were found near the area where Robin's body was located. Oh. So this guy could have been the thing.

And it's weird that this fucking crazy killer was at the home motel at the same time they were, or at least allegedly was. Right, right, right. So the next case on this Flinders Highway, so much fun, is the case of Catherine Graham from July 29, 1974. So Catherine was only 18 years old. She was from Queensland on July 29th, 1974. She was selling educational books door to door as a bookseller.

What a sweetie. That was like a thing back then. A lot of these cases start with like she was selling encyclopedias or books. Remember encyclopedias? Yes, I remember encyclopedia. We had one that somebody came to our door and sold us a whole set of. Remember when people came to your door? Yeah.

I just said that. Wow. Yeah, we definitely had like one of those sets that came and were like, would you like, would you like, yes, we would. I used to them. They were good. I think I still have some of those. Now people knock on the door and I'm like, sorry.

I don't know you. I'm like, I don't answer the door to people. So she was doing this around Townsville and then disappeared. Oh, no. That evening that she was doing this at 8.19 p.m., Catherine had called her mother from a payphone. It was telling her that she felt really unnerved by a man that was following her. Oh, no.

She was panicked and nervous. She was like, I really don't like him. Something's weird. She said she just didn't like the look of him. Oh, this makes me want to cry. Yeah. It was quickly the next day that she was found murdered near the Flinders Highway in the same location about the same location that Judith McKay and Susan McKay were found.

In fact, it was only 500 meters away. Oh, wow. Also, she was found. partially buried as well, and police said that it looked like they had all been disposed of in kind of the same way. Yeah. She had been brutally raped, and her skull had been crushed by multiple beatings with a rock. Oh my God. The massive head trauma was what the cause of death was. Arthur Stanley Brown, who was suspected of killing Judith and Susan, was the main suspect here. Did he ever confess to this one? Nope. The places she was selling books was on the same route that his home was on.

Oh, shit. And he was a creepy fuck. who would skeeve out anyone he looked at so that checks out and there is still a $250,000 reward for information about her death. Oh my goodness. The next case is the case of Karen Edwards, Gordon Twaddle, and Timothy Thompson on October 1978. So Karen Edwards was a 27-year-old student psychologist from Dandenong in Victoria. Okay.

Dandenong. Tim Thompson was 31 and Gordon Twaddle was 21. They were school teachers from New Zealand and had arrived in Australia about 18 months before they were murdered. They were friends, all that good stuff. Tim and Karen were in love. Oh, stop. I know. And planned a fun adventure together.

Yes. So Tim was going to do a mission trip teaching in Alice Springs and Gordon was going to go with him and he was going to work in a bakery. They were going to do this for a few months, make some money. The plan was for Karen to go back to Victoria and then fly out to. Alice Spring in October, where they would all go on two separate motorcycles to Mount Isa, Queensland, and Cairns, then back down to Melbourne to have Christmas with family together. Shut up. So it was going to be this cool epic trip that they were going to take on motorcycles.

It was going to be great. It was not. It was not. Karen and Tim were riding a red and gold 1977 BMW R100S. I know nothing about McMur. motorcycle. So it had a side car that they had made themselves. Stop. That sidecar had their nine-month-old Doberman named Tristie in it. Like fuck me right up. Yeah. Gordon was on a

blue 1977 Suzuki GS-750. I love it. Yeah. It was just going to be this awesome epic adventure together. Also, you know, in this traveling with two men probably made her feel safe. Yeah, of course. I mean, I mean, I'm not trying to be like, like I'm a feminist. But if I'm with two bearded dudes, I'm going to feel like I got a little safe. I feel safe in numbers anyways,

but two bearded dudes are going to give you an extra layer of safety. Like motorcycle dudes. Yeah, like big motorcycle dudes. The group stopped together at a caravan park on October 5th, 1978. That's where they would like camp out and stay. Yeah. Witnesses said they got into a brown and cream-colored Toyota Land Cruiser with

an unknown man. Uh-huh. This man was someone they had apparently just met. They had set up a can't site and they had left all their gear, their bikes, and the dog tied up, indicating they wanted to return quickly. Like, he was just tied to a tree. No, I know. The next day, witnesses said the man showed back up in the van alone.

Uh-huh. And packed all the stuff, including up the dog and left. He took the dog. He took the dog. They just disappeared. And then on October 24th, 1978. Stan Harris and his fiancée Kirsten Striker

were walking their dogs when they spotted Karen's body propped up against a tree in Bushland in Spear Creek. That's so haunting. They quickly found Tim and Gordon propped up against other trees nearby as well. Each of the three victims

had been shot in the head with a 22 rifle. All of their pockets were turned inside out and their identifications were stolen. That's very Ivan Milat, isn't it? It is pretty Ivan Milat. Yeah. A week later, everything but their bikes were found at a local dump. Oh, my God. 64-year-old Bruce John Preston was arrested and charged for the murders in April 2019.

Oh, shit. Yeah. Bruce was a former prison guard at the most notorious prison in Australia, Goulburn Supermax. This place is where literally the worst of the worst go. Wow. It has the highest security, super violent, like crazy people. This guy was a prison guard? Yeah. Bruce was someone they looked at early in the investigation, but he was eventually because he had Tim's motorcycle. Oh. And you didn't think that was going to give you away.

Exactly. And it was a very distinctive motorcycle, I guess. He claimed he found it. You don't just like find motorbikes. Just like whatever. Like nice ones, I feel. Yeah. I just found it. He also lied saying he wasn't near Mount Isa at the time, but then he had admitted he was contradicted himself. Okay. He also drove a vehicle very similar to the van at the time. So like, check, check, check. But he was recently released on bond, on bail, excuse me, because they, now the judge is saying that the evidence against him has been greatly exaggerated. Oh, okay. So this is like an ongoing thing. Well, shit. So the next case from Flinders Highway is the case of Tony Jones, November 3rd, 1982. So Tony Jones was a 20,

22-year-old dude from Perth. He was hitchhiking around Australia. He was backpacking along the way. His whole plan was he was heading home with his brother Tim when he disappeared. Okay. Now, Tony was hitchhiking and Tim was riding a

bike. Okay. Like a motorcycle or like a bike bike? I think like a legit bicycle. Oh shit. So they traveled separately but to the same destination. Okay. Along the route they left messages for each other with friends and family. So they were to call friends and be like, oh, Tim says he's going to be here next. With his little belongings, Tim had a 22 voyeur rifle serial number 257-435

with a stained red stock. It was in his backpack. That was never found again either. Okay. What is a stained red stock? Why are you asking me that? Sorry. I'm so sorry. Wow, that was so aggressive. I have no idea. Why are you asking me that? Shit. No, I meant like why you asking me that? I I don't know. I didn't know if it was like stained red like with blood. Oh, it's blood. That's what I was asking. No, I think I have no idea.

It's not stained red with blood, but. Okay. I have no idea. Why are you asking me? Maybe someone else can answer that for us. Oh my God, look at that. Look at me yelling on there. Whoa.

So Tony spent some time in Townsville and also stopped in Cairns. He went back to Townsville on November 3rd and he talked to his girlfriend on the phone. His girlfriend. Yeah. His girlfriend. I love love. She told him that Tim was in Mount Isa and was waiting for him at the next stop. Yeah.

Now, their parents had wired them $150. There's a lot of money back then. And they were going to get it when they both got to Mount Isa. So Tony was like, I got a hitchhiked to Mount Eita. So he hitchhiked intending to go straight there. Yeah. That was the last anyone ever heard of him or saw him again. Oh, my God.

His bank account remains untouched. Stop saying that to me. I'm sorry. It's just, it freaks me out. Apparently the police were really ridiculously negligent with this case. Oh, no. And at the time we're apparently not awesome for any case, to be honest. There was a note that they had in evidence that claimed to say where Tony was buried.

It said, quote, I believe body of A.J. of Tony Jones buried in or near Fullerton Riverbed within a hundred yards west, south side Flinders Highway, Lockheel. This note was lost. But they still know what it says, so do they go check that place out? But the problem is they did. They searched the place. They couldn't find anything. But the letter itself was lost. So now they can't test for DNA.

Well, that's stupid. Which they could have. So a reward for $20,000 was offered in 1983. In 2010, it was raised to $250,000. There was a coronal inquest that ended up saying that he was officially murdered. They don't have a body, obviously, but that's how this works. Right. But the family didn't get a death certificate until 2006.

Why did it take so long? There was a lot of laws in red tape to go through with that shit. They're still trying to get that process, like, right. His brother, Mark Jones, still is on the case looking for him for answers. According to an ABC Australia article, he said, quote, we now believe that he was picked up by a group of young people and taken to Hugenden question mark events unfolded that ended up with Tony being killed and his body being disposed of on that evening yikes so they believe they know what happened but obviously you have to wait for that shit

in 2014 Andy Albury claimed that he killed 14 people in the area between the 1970 and 1982 he included Tony Jones in this number. Oh, okay. He was a bullshitter. Laya. So police think he was just being an asshole. But I'll never be able to wrap my brain around that. It's just people who like to fuck with people.

It's so annoying. This guy too, this Andy Albury, is a whole other mess of awful. He murdered a woman named Gloria Pindon and Darwin in 1983. He mutilated her with a broken bottle. He cut off her breasts and gouged out her eyes. Yeah. So that is the last story I have about Flinders Highway. You just ended on that?

What the fuck is wrong with you? I had to end on a on a on a on a on a woo. Whoa. Hey yo. That's what I had to end up. I'm scared. So that is Flinders Highway. The Highway of Death.

Shoot. And there's also like if there's other missing persons cases. There's like spoopy poopy things happen in there. And I do think there's like a thrill killer out there. I think so. Or at least was a thrill killer out there that was just picking people off. Because a lot of it was in the 70s. Like, do I believe that Ivan Millat probably had a hand maybe a couple of those? Sure do, because he was an asshat of the highest order.

But, you know, we'll never know because that fucker is dead now and he took it all with them. That ugly shit. Yikes. So yeah. So you know what, Amanda? Thank you so much. Yeah. You inspired us greatly. inspired us. And for that, we are forever in your debt. You know, it's been spooking me out this whole time. What has? The cabinet behind you is open and I feel like it never is the bottom one.

Why did you do that? I don't know. It's spooping me out. Why the fuck would you do that? Because you do a lot of shitty things to me during these episodes and I have been facing it looking at it while you're telling these scary-ass stories. And now I'm like, is there something in that cabinet? Not cool, man. Not cool. Well, now we have to end the episode to go find out what's in the cabinet. Hopefully we'll be okay, guys. Well, stay tuned. And if you want to go ahead and follow us on Instagram, you can do that. If you want to follow us on Twitter, a morbid podcast.

Write us an email to check in on our whereabouts. Morbid podcast.com and keep sending us these fucking crazy-ass scary roads. Join the Facebook page group. Morbid, Colin, a true crime podcast Facebook group. It's lit in there. It really is. Sorry, I thought you were going to say. say something. I said it is. Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. What else do we have? A website.

We do. Tell them our website. The website has all of the tour dates on it and all the updates. So stay tuned for all that good stuff. It's at morbidpodcast.com. And keep a look out for all your shirt orders because they're coming at you. Coming at you hot like a hot potato. We hope you keep listening. And we hope you. Keep it weird. But that's a weird that I have to find out what's in that habit. Can we just end the episode? I'm scared. Wish us luck.