Morbid - The Phillip Island Murder

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

The night of September 22, 1986 was an absolute nightmare on Phillip Island. On an island known for its nightly penguin parades, no one expected to find a young woman brutally murdered on her bedroom floor. Elizabeth “Beth” Barnard was only 23 years old when she was discovered stabbed to death and left with the letter “A” carved into her abdomen. She’d been having an affair with a married man, Fergus Cameron. Did his wife Vivienne do this to Beth, or was it a stalker from her past? The Phillip Island Murder by Vikki Petraitis & Paul Daley As always thank you to our sponsors,  HelloFresh: Right now, you can get twelve free meals—including free shipping!--when you go to HelloFresh.com/morbid12 and use code morbid12. Babbel: Right now, when you purchase a 3-month Babbel subscription, you’ll get an additional 3 months for FREE!! Just go to BABBEL.com and use promo code MORBID Betterhelp: This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and [Morbid: A True Crime Podcast] listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/[Morbid] Athena Club: Show your skin you care with the Athena Club Razor Kit! Sign up today and you’ll get 20% off your first order! Just go to Athena Club dot com and use promo code mtc Credit Karma: Go to CreditKarma.com/podcast to learn more and find offers tailored just for you. 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 Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is morbid. It sure is. And it's like kind of morbid in the morning, but I've been awake since like five, so I'm ready to go. My voice doesn't sound different. I'm wide awake. It's true. You don't have that. I loved that. You don't have that like tired ash voice. No. Which I love still. Thank you. I love that voice. When I, I just like, I don't even realize that I'm doing it. But when we do morbid in the morning and we listen back, it's literally like, I'm like, yeah, and you know, then this happened. And then like halfway through the episode, I'm like, yeah, Elena, I know, right? It's crazy. It's like the craziest thing. It shifts so hard.

Halfway through the episode because I'll be editing it and I'm like, oh, you woke up. Like, it's just like, here you are, Ash. You're there because it goes from like, yeah. And then exactly what you just said, it's like, oh my God. Elena, literally I know. He was wild in. Crazy. Doing butt stuff with the devil. Join our Patreon if you want to know anything about that. If you want to know that inside joke.

But yeah, I think we have like a little bit of business. I was just going to remind you guys that we do have a summer solstice show. That is actually coming up, baby. Baby. It's going to be June 20th. Yes, it is Father's Day. Go find a dad and watch it with him. And tickets are available at on location live.com.

category slash morbid. If you didn't have time to write that down, you can just go over to the link in our bio, honey. Woo! And then we do have like a ton of new merch, which is like so dope. And it's really just like, it's, I love it. I've been wearing it almost every single day. So if you want to get you some of that, you can head over to shop dot morbid podcast.com. And if you're a Patreon, don't forget that you get 20% off. Woo. Look at that. Look at me doing the business. Look at that shill, shell, shill, shill, shill. That was a real quick, show, show, show, show. We love that. It was a chill, chill, chill, chill, chill.

It was a chill, chill, chill, show, show. But if you have clicked on this episode, you know what we're talking about today. But honestly, before we jump in, I know everybody's like, no, jump right into the case. Like, why are you still talking? What's up, girl? I just wanted to quickly say, like, guys, Lake Lanier is popping off right now. People are tweeting at me being like, bitch, are you psychic? Like.

Yeah, what? Anytime I feel, I feel like there have been times where we will cover a case. Yes. And then weird shit happens. I have been, we have both been sent. TikToks have like floating feet in the water, except not floating submerged. I don't know if like maybe we can post it or something, but people keep tagging us and thank you for tagging us because like, holy shit. Yeah.

In this TikTok where this guy is at Lake Lanier and there's like happy jaunty music playing. And he's like just another day at a haunted lake. There's like a tire swing in the distance. And there's clearly feet under the murky water. And I was like, I have many questions. One, why did this pop up suddenly the day after we do the Lake Lanier episode? And then two, has anyone contacted this man and found out what is going on here? Or has anyone found these feet?

And then not only that, we both just found out like 20 minutes ago while we were just having a quick little Brecky together, that there was a fire at Lake Lanier. And at least one person is, I think it's seriously injured. Yeah, so what is happening? Sorry. I don't know if we shook the universe or what, but like, I know. Damn. I don't know how to put it back. If we do have universe shaking capabilities, I hope that this case shakes up something new because we've got an unsolved case for you today. Air bunnies, air bunnies. It's a confusing case, that's for sure. I'm excited to hear about it. We're going to be talking about the Phillip Island murder and the Phillip Island disappearance, if that's going to make sense to you. I'm ready. This is like the epitome of like small town where everyone knows everybody and nothing ever happens until this.

Until it happened. Yeah. So before we get into it, I actually just wanted to shout out the book, the Philip Island Murder. It was co-written by Vicki Petratus. And I've actually read a couple of her books. Yeah, and she was on Case File. And she was on Case File. And actually Case File did an entire, I believe, 10-part series on this specific case where they just went into like crazy detail.

Thicky Petratus spent two years researching this case. Yeah, before she wrote her book. And she said that she's still getting constant information. Wow. That's awesome. It's crazy. Also, go listen to Case File if you haven't because you'll enjoy it. Oh, yeah. And let me pull up the name of the actual limited series.

So it's presented by Case File. Guys, remember when Case File read an ad like for Morbid? Elena. Do you think of that every night before you go to sleep? My world shattered. When that happened. I think I was like at work and you texted me. me and you were like, and like sent me an audio clip.

And I was like, I have like the audio clip. Like it saved. It was a huge deal. It was a big, it's still a big deal. I'm still freaking out. Never not going to be a huge deal. Case file is like my, my, my, one of my OGs. How do we, how do we, um, collab with case file since he's anonymous?

Case file. At case file. At case file. At case file. Can we collab? I might, I would shatter. He could do like the whole thing that like the anonymous group does. I love it.

wear that on his face and we'll never know who he is we don't have to zoom we could do it over we via the telephone if you want case file we're just we can make anything work are you free today me too at case file are you free next year i'm free every day next year we're gonna talk case file we gotta make this happen but thank you for that like little thing while i was pulling this up you're welcome i figured it out that was right it is a 10-part podcast and it's called the vanishing of vivian cameron ah so go listen to it go listen to that if you want like a crazy deep gosh because they Dive deep. Dizzy, dizzity, dizzity deep.

Like Lake and Lanier deep. Not that deep. Not that deep. Well, Phillip Island is an Australian island, so we're over in Australia. And it is home to more penguins than it is people. I mean, and I think every place should just be like that. Yeah, that's really, that's, that just tells you exactly what's happening there. Yeah.

It actually has the largest little penguin colony in the entire world. Get the fuck out of here. Little penguin community. And like, I didn't say like, oh, it has like a little penguin community. No, it's literally a little penguin community, but it's gigantic. Oh, God, stop. And every night there is a penguin parade where people can watch penguins all come out of the sea and into their little burrows for the night.

I think that is the happiest place on earth. Like, if we ever go to Australia, I don't even care about, like, putting my luggage wherever it needs to go. We're taking it with us and we're going to the penguin parade. We're going to the penguin parade. And you might be saying to me, Ashkell, why the fuck are you talking to me about Penguins on a true crime podcast. Well, don't worry. Okay, good. Because it was while working at the penguin parade that a very well-established, well-to-do gentleman from a very prominent family in the area

named Fergus Cameron met a young attractive woman named Elizabeth, Beth Barnard. Now, Fergus and his family were prominent members in society because they were actually founding members of the members. Founding members. They were founding members of the Philip Island Grand Prix circuit, which is like a nice racetrack on the island. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's like a big deal over there. Makes sense. Now, Beth was originally from Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne. She came to Phillip Island to work, and her family had a home on the island, so that's where she was staying. Fergus and Beth became friendly while they were working together at the Penguin Parade. And after some time of knowing each other, she also started to help out on the farm that Fergus and his family owned together. So she was a farmhand,

and they work together at the penguin parade, which I want to go work at the penguin parade. Yeah, I mean, come on. Ideal job. You'll never work a day in your life. Seriously. You do what you love. Our cousin Heather used to work at the aquarium, and she was like in the penguin exhibit. Oh, my God.

Yeah, I think that's the coolest job ever. She also like went to different continents and like saved penguins from like oil spills and stuff. She's like a badass. Shout out to our cousin Heather. Shout out to Heather, the marine biologist. A. She wrote a book, didn't she?

She was in the book, yeah. She was like in a movie about it. She's badass. She's badass. But this is Australia. Yeah. Not Heather. Not Heather.

But we love you, Heather. Now Fergus was a married man. He was married to a woman named Vivian Cameron, who at this point you now know has disappeared at some point. Oh, no. It's weird, though. So Vivian was like a shy, somewhat awkward woman, but she, everybody that knew her, like, liked her. She was a very likable person. She was just a little bit shy and could be.

awkward sometimes. Yeah, who doesn't love Vivian. Yeah, I love Vivian. Well, I'm actually not going to say that. I'm just saying. Yeah. We all love a Vivian. Viv. Yeah. But their marriage always seemed to be a struggle. And they actually had two young sons together. And it was like after the last son was born, that's when everything just really started to go downhill. That's sad. And she would ask Fergus to go to counseling, but he didn't want to. He was like very against it. And little did she know at the time. That was probably because he had a mistress. Oh, Fergus. Now, the first night anything happened between Fergus and Beth was like somewhat by accident. This whole story of like, was it an accident? Because that just seems a little like too lined up in the stars.

I mean, did they accidentally? They didn't accidentally like bump uglies. Because I was like, you don't really accidentally. No, that's not an accident. But Beth had invited some friends over who worked at the Penguin Parade to have like a drink after work. But the only person that showed up was Fergus. So you feel as though that must have been arranged. I mean, here I am.

I don't know. But I'm just saying from my vantage point over here looks a little suss. Yeah, because Beth was also like a pretty like popular girl at that workplace. So why would know she had a big friend group. All the guys thought she was like a very attractive woman. Yeah. Yeah. You know.

Seems like a setup. And they all hung out all the time. Exactly. Which if he wasn't married, I'd be like good plan best. Right. But he's married and a father of two children. Yeah, that's no good. So one thing led to another and they did end up bump and uglies. And from that point on, Fergus was just totally smitten. He said that he would do anything he could to get extra time with Beth. Well, then end your marriage, man. Well, that's the thing. So they would sneak away into one of their cars during afternoon breaks to, you know. Or Fergus would like leave his house extra early in the morning to see Beth before the day started. You mean like leave his wife and children? Yes. To go see his mystery.

Okay. Precisely what I mean. And it's like for a guy that seemed to have absolutely no interest in fixing things with his wife, it's interesting that he didn't just separate. Well, that's that I'm like, just separate. Right. And then it's fine. You do whatever you want to do.

He's well to do. Like it's not like he's going to lose everything. But I feel like some people like, because I think this in like so many instances where this kind of thing happens where you're like just divorce or like just separate. Yeah. Just break up. Yeah. Some people like that like forbidden fruit.

Yeah, because it makes it more exciting. So they like that. And if they did separate from their wife, then they'd probably just break up with the girl too. Yeah, it just wouldn't be as fun. They like that. They're like destroying lives. Yeah, that's awesome.

And like doing it on the low low. Yeah. Which is like such another level of fuck. It's just really shitty. It's like the old expression like have your cake and eat it too. It's like you can't though. Remember they told us that? You can't do it.

No. You can't do it. It's part of the expression. It is. And the other thing is. that if he had just separated from Vivian, none of this shit would have happened. Yeah, and it's like, then you could do whatever you want. Exactly.

Go ahead. If that's what you're into and you're not into being in a monogamous married relationship, then go do what you want to do, but don't drag someone else down. Exactly. So the afternoon of September 22nd, 1986, Fergus decided that he was going to leave work early. And I saw in a couple sources that he went to Vivian's parents home because they were like out of town. So I don't know if he and Beth ended up like going there together or if he was just there alone and had some alone time. But then he did end up seeing Beth after that. And he went to her house.

Okay. Now Beth was pretty sick. She had had a sinus infection and like a flu like thing going on. So I think he also just wanted to check in on her kind of thing. The problem was though that Vivian was starting to like get onto this whole thing. Like she was catching on to everything. You always find out. Well, and it's not like they were being secretive. Like people used to see them like Fookin and the car. Yeah, it's like, come on. Like, no. And everyone in the town had been talking for quite some time about Fergus and Beth's affair. And Vivian herself was starting to second guess the looks that she would see Fergus and Beth share together because remember, Beth works on their farm. Like, she's seeing this, you know? And she had recently caught them hugging each other in the barn. And it was like not just like a friendly hug. Like she asked Fergus about it. And he actually said that she like

kept punching him in the head afterwards. Like they got into like some crazy fight. Damn. Oh, that's not good. He made her seem very, very abusive. Okay. But no one ever saw her hit him other than. Yeah. So this is really just like, it's just Ferguson's point of view. We're just getting certain sides of the story. Exactly, exactly.

Because that would not be cool. No, that's not okay. It's not cool to cheat on people, but it's also not cool to violence. Exactly. The whole thing seems to be a big mess. Yeah, it really is. So Vivian did call Fergus and she realized that he wasn't at work. Like he said he, like, not only did he say.

say he was going to be, she just like knew his schedule. Yeah, he's supposed to be there. So she made the decision. She was going to confront him later that night. Now, to pass the time, she invited Fergus's sister, Marnie, over for a glass of wine. You should always have a glass of wine before you're going to confront your cheating husband. 100%. Calms the nerves.

Yeah. Now, Vivian had told Marnie that she was worried that Fergus wasn't being faithful. But Marnie was like, I think everything's fine. Also, that's my brother, so I'm not going to out him. Oh, what a weird position. Yeah. The family seemed like a little too close because they all worked on the farm together. Not like a little too close, but they definitely, I think there's like some missing pieces to this story.

Yeah, for sure. Some people have the answers to. But unfortunately, Fergus had no idea that his sister was up at bat for him all that time. And he didn't get home that night until 9.20. And then when he got home, he was like, oh, hey, ladies. And then he went and took a phone call in the other room because he was like constantly getting work phone calls. Of course. But he took like a wicked log phone call and then just walked back in. And when he walked back in the room, he said that he could tell that Vivian was like visibly shaken. Like she

was like upset and that Marney seemed agitated and like excused herself and was ready to go. Oh boy. Now. So Marnie was like, peace out. See you later. And Vivian was like, Fergus, where the fuck have you been all this time? Yeah. And now you've sat there on the phone forever afterwards. Exactly. Like you're just being rude. And so she basically, She just said, like, where have you been? Like, what were you doing? And he shockingly just confirmed all of her suspicions and admitted everything about his affair with Beth.

Damn. He was like, I was at Beth's house, like, you're right. Like, we've been having an affair. Whoa. So Viv, rightfully so, lost her shit. Yeah. But then she took things a step too far. And she smashed a wine glass over Fergus's head.

Oh, shit. And then when it broke, she like stabbed him in the back with it. Oh, my God. Like up the back. back. Holy shit. So that whole fiasco is going on. There's like children sleeping and like on another part of the house. Fergus goes upstairs to like figure out what's going on with his head. She's probably just like trying to like clean up or whatever. And then they finally realized that he needs to go to the hospital. Like he's bleeding really badly from his ear and his back. Yeah. I mean she stabbed him. Yeah. Literally. That's that's bad.

That's not okay. So Vivian is like you need to go to a hospital. Like I have to take you to the hospital. Like let's call Marnie. back over here and she can watch the kids and we'll go get that taken care of. Hello, Marnie. I stabbed your brother. Yeah, literally. Sweet, sweet Marnie, the poor thing. So Marnie was like, okay, coming. Coming right back. And her husband, Ian, went along with her back to Fergus's yet again. Oh my God. Yet again. This is bonkers. So at the hospital, Fergus got his wounds all stitched up. He needed stitches to his ear and part of his back. And when he and Vivian got home around 1230, they sent Marnie and Ian on their way so that they could speak privately. Yeah.

And it was then decided that they were absolutely going to get a divorce. For sure. So I read in a couple sources that Vivian agreed that the children would be better off staying with Fergus on the farm and she would go back to Melbourne with her parents. But anyone who knew Vivian was like, no, that conversation. Like there's no way that it went like that because she was obsessed with her kids. Yeah. Just a very doting mother, like never would have walked away from them. never would have wanted to be like, you take them for the most part.

Exactly. And actually later, Fergus himself told investigators that he knew if he ended things with Vivian, that she would be the one to stay with the kids. And he and Beth would be living somewhere else. Ah. Like not on the island. So they finished their conversation. And Vivian was like, you know what?

Why don't you spend the night at Marnie's house? Like, I think enough has gone down here. Why don't you get the fuck out? I don't really want to sleep in the same bed as you. No. Please leave. So she drops him off at Marnie and Anne's house. And, you know, one might think it's so that she could have some time alone to reflect, maybe cool off.

Maybe she did that for a little bit. I don't really know. She returned home. She had a few hours. And around 3 a.m. she phoned a friend Robin Dixon. And she said to Robin Dixon, hey, girl, can you watch the kids? Because I have to take Fergus to the hospital. So can you come and just like, they're sleeping?

Can you just hang out with them? At 3 a.m. At 3 a.m. And also, she had already taken Fergus to the hospital. Like, that already happened. That was already a thing that happened. So what the fuck was Viv up to? Well, nothing good.

That's for sure. Now, when Robin got to the home, none of the adults were there. Vivian was already gone. So the kids were just sleeping in their beds by themselves. Jesus. Exactly. I couldn't find their ages, but they were always referred to as young. Yeah.

Now, Robin assumed that she must have left in a hurry, too, because her purse was still there at the house. So the next morning, Robin still has the kids. Vivian never showed up back up to get them. What? And Robin wasn't getting any kind of answer when she tried to call Vivian. So she said, or so she needed to call Fergus because she had to go to work. She's like, hey, Fergus, I have to go to work. This is what happened. Meanwhile, Fergus is like, what? He's like, no. She didn't take me the, like she took me in the hospital one time, not two times. Like way earlier. And he was, so he went to go pick up the boys. But now he was really concerned that something might have had. happened to Beth. Oh, which seems to be a pretty big leap. Like Vivian's missing and like didn't

pick up the kids, but why is your immediate thought like, oh, I hope Beth's okay. He must have, like, something bad must have happened at Beth. So the night before. Like maybe you should worry about like your actual wife or the mother of your child for like literally missing. Like just one second. Just quick. Maybe just put Beth over here for a second. This much. Maybe just like, yeah, we're not a fan of Fergus, but he's rich. Just give her a little bit of a thought. Exactly. So it's like, what, but I guess the night before at the hospital, he alleged that Vivian made some kind of threat against Beth saying, like, I'm going to kill that little bitch. Of course she did. You find out your spouse is cheating on you. Of course you're going to say. I don't care who you. And if you're listening right now and say like, now I want it. You would. You absolutely. You would. I'm not saying you follow through on it and that it's okay. No, no, no, no, no. If somebody, if my spouse was cheating on me, the first thing I would say was I'm going to fucking kill her. Yeah, you might. You might get a little hyperbolic in that situation. allow yourself to get slightly hyperbolic. That's all you can get hyperbolic when there's an affair.

No, like I said, he hadn't taken that seriously at the time, but clearly something was going on now. So he, I think this is super weird. He asked his brother and his brother-in-law to go check on Beth so that he could like take care of the kid situation. That just seems weird to me. Yeah. I don't have like a reason that I could put into words. But it's just something about it. It's like, why was that your first?

thought and then why did you send them to go find her yeah that's strange i don't know it's just weird this whole thing is strange oh just wait it's also terrifying so donald uh his brother and ian his brother-in-law headed to the house that beth lived in and they made their way in through an unlocked back door that was like slightly open still so automatically already things are going great automatically shit's not good and it did not take long for them to find her her bedroom was like one of the first off of the hallway, and she was lying on the floor almost right in the doorway of her bedroom. Her eyes were wide open and staring at the ceiling. And there was a blanket covering her body all the way up to her nose. Damn. Now that was on purpose. It was like,

it was almost like whoever did this covered Beth with the blanket so that the removal would somehow be more shocking than just finding her the way she was. Like a reveal. Yeah, because I know sometimes people are like, oh, well, that's like a sign of, like, someone caring about someone. Exactly. Not always. And I think in this case, it was a little more like theatrical. Yeah, for sure. So Donald and Ian obviously knew that Beth was clearly not okay and definitely not alive. They saw blood pooled all around her body. There was blood all over the room. There was a bloody handprint that had been made on the wall during the struggle. Damn. It was later determined to be Beth's handprint. Holy shit. So they ran to the, I believe it's the cows police station or cowess police

station and they told sergeant cliff ash that there had been a domestic argument over in rill i believe so you say it what a domestic argument how are you making that leap there's literally blood all over the place there's bloody handprints on the walls like this woman is covered in a blanket with blood pooled all around her she's very clearly deceased and you're going to call that argument a domestic argument wow they're really buried the lead. That's not domestic. What? And it's not an argument. It's final.

It's definitely not an argument. So when the responding officers and just trigger warning, this is very intensive. When they showed up to this, they were probably like an argument. You undersold this. You really undersolded. I'm pretty sure the sergeant was like,

yeah, guys, like that's not what that's called. Just for future ref. I guess playing devil's advocate, because I guess that's my new thing. And maybe they were very, very shocked and they just didn't know what to say. Yeah, I would definitely go and be like, there's blood everywhere come help. Yeah. That's if I was very upset.

I don't know. It's very strange. So when the responding officers arrived on the scene, what they found was jaw dropping. And if you missed it again, trigger warning. Trigger. Trigger. Trigger. So when the blanket was removed from Beth's body, it became clear that her nightgown was pulled, completely lifted up, and exposing both her upper and lower body.

She had been stabbed and slashed at multiple times so badly that her neck bone was exposed. Damn. Her upper lip had been sliced in half and the knife had knocked out her front left tooth. And that was now laying beside her bottom. I'm touching my teeth right now. I know. Teeth things freak me out. I watched like a quick little YouTube thing and it like showed a tooth flying out and I was like, how dare you do that to me?

How dare you? She clearly though had put up a fight against whoever had done this to her. her, her hands were covered in defensive wounds. One was in between the webbing, or in the webbing between the thumb and index finger. And this is the most grisly discovery of all. Oh, no. The letter A had been carved deep into her chest. It covered nearly her entire torso going from underneath her breast to the tip of her hip bones on each side.

Like the scarlet letter A? Like the scarlet letter A. They got fucking literary with it. They got so literary with it. That is fucked. One side was carved so deep that the skin was like filleted and there was fat exposed. Oh. Yes.

They do believe, I mean, everything else, like she died a horrible, horrible death. Yeah. But they do believe that she was dead when this was carved. Holy shit. So at least there's that, but she suffered. To put a scarlet letter A. Holy shit. Seriously.

That's like a movie. Literally. Now there was some evidence left at the scene to be gathered. Next to Beth's body was a knife that was covered in blood. There were paper towels next to the sink soaked with blood. And they found a few cigarette butts that made it seem like whoever did this, like wasn't really in a rush to get out of there. Just hanging out. Definitely like hung out for a minute. It's so weird. It was later determined that whoever had slashed Beth's throat had turned her head to the side when they were cutting because the cut was not in one clean sweeping motion. It was like a few jagged cuts.

Yeah, like a carve, which is interesting. And they knew that her head had been turned to the side. So they assumed that somebody was maybe standing, obviously standing behind her and turned her head to the side because only one of her carotid arteries was severed and the other was intact. Huh. Yeah, so they must have like been behind her. And twisted her head.

And pulled her head back to the side to like get a better view of her neck. Exactly. Oh, now it turned out that the gash in her throat measured 11 centimeters wide and 6.5 centimeters deep. Damn. So, like, I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I would say that's nearly decapitated. That's rough. Like, real close at least. That is real rough.

In one source, I saw it described as, quote, cut to the neck bone like a slaughterhouse animal. Oh. I can't imagine walking onto this scene. And when you think it's a domestic argument. Yeah. That's really ringing in my head of like you walk in there. A domestic argument. Wow.

Now Vivian was automatically the number one person of interest because by now everybody knew the affair was out in the open. They had gone to the hospital the night before. That scarlet letter A is pretty damning, I will say. Yeah, that's the thing. And the land cruiser that she was presumably traveling in was spotted not only at 3.30 a.m. by Beth's neighbor. So Beth's neighbor saw the, like, family car pull up to the neighborhood.

But then it was spotted again around 5 a.m. on the Phillip Island Bridge. Now, it would be another few hours before the police located it in the same spot where it had last been seen. I think it was around 4 p.m. when they were able to get to it. But we can assume that it had been parked there since 5 a.m. Because there was many sightings of it. Okay. So she definitely was at the house at some point. and then parked on the bridge.

So upon the discovery of the cruiser and what they found inside, investigators put two and two together, and they assumed that Vivian Cameron had jumped off the bridge to her death after viciously murdering Beth. Damn. Now inside the car, they found two packs of cigarettes that were definitely Vivian. She smoked a lot. what was called a face washer, which if you're from Australia, is that literally just a washcloth? Like, I got to know. Yeah, like, help.

What is that? It was doused in blood, and they found a carving knife. Now, I couldn't find anything to say that there was blood on the carving knife, but there was a carving knife in the car. Which, like, why you have a carving knife? And also interesting, because her neck was carved. Literally carved. Right. But I don't know if there was blood on it, so a little weird.

So it's just there. It's just there. As far as we know. Now, shockingly enough. Vivie and Cameron was never seen again. They never found her body. There were divers that scanned the water beneath the bridge. There were helicopter searching.

And they didn't even find one inkling of her left behind in the water. And people think that's weird because she wore glasses. So those would have fallen off and you would think that you would have found those. Yeah. Like if she had jumped into the water. And I guess that night she had been wearing a scarf and people were like, wouldn't that have like come off? Yeah, you would think. It's just hard to believe that like nothing turned up.

Like I was watching this little clip on it and somebody was like not even like a shoe, nothing. Yeah, nothing. That's what's shocking. It doesn't make any sense. And the other thing is that if she did jump off this particular bridge to commit suicide, she would have been the first person to do so because there are zero other registered suicides from that bridge. Not a single one other than presumably hers.

But it seems unlikely to anyone who knew Vivian that she would one commit suicide. such a gruesome murder. And number two, take her own life. Yeah. People around town knew her as even tempered, funny, a doting mom. Like that that wasn't her. She loved her kid. She was always with them. And actually the same afternoon that she went missing, it was like somewhat significant because she was supposed to bring fruit and milk in for her son's class. It sounded like a volunteer thing. That's like really sad. It's terrible. So if Vivian didn't do this to Beth, then like, who did and why did they do it yeah and it that a is very like the a really just that wasn't there I'd be like wow would I'd still be like who did that like that's very coincidental but that A

the A is like a smoke sign yeah but it later became known a smoke sign a smoke sign a smoke signal it's still the morning it later became known though that beth had a stalker right around the time of her death and things had recently become heated when she asked him to like get the fuck away from her. So the guy stalking her was apparently somebody that she had some kind of relationship with in the past, but she had broken things off. The guy like never got the memo that she wasn't interested. He would sit in his car outside of her house at night.

He would mow her lawn when she wasn't home, which like if I could have a stalker do that. I'm totally kidding. No, I'm totally kidding. And he would also just leave flowers for her all the time. Yeah. It's super creepy. And it's like, and it makes sense. that if she did have a stalker, it's like, did this start, it said everybody knew about this affair.

So the A could be him. So did this stalker use it as a. Like you're an adulterist. Like, you're supposed to be with me. Exactly. And make it like pointing towards them to try to throw everybody off the trail. Right. I mean, it's a very possible scenario.

And no, so not too long before her murder, she had come home to him mowing the lawn and she had had enough. She was like, this needs to stop. You need to leave me. alone. You can't mow my lawn anymore. Like you got to, you got to get away from me. Stop mowing my lawn. Come on. Stop doing it. And later when she retold the story to friends, she didn't seem to be like afraid of this guy. And this is actually on video or excuse me, audio tape because she had a friend that was like living a little bit far away and they used to send like tapes back and forth to each other. So actually Fergus is on this particular tape. Oh. Which is interesting. And they're just

kind of like talking about this guy in a joking manner. But just some of the comment. And that she makes. I think she's trying to make it seem like she's not scared, but just you can tell that she is scared a little bit. It's putting on like false bravado just to be like, because you're trying to convince yourself that you're not as scared as you are. I think that's exactly what it was. It's always pretty obvious when you're too. Yeah. Now, I guess he was cleared by police, this particular man, but he left Phillip Island not that long after Beth's murder, which that's always fucking weird. That's always. That's always shady. Always shady business. It's always suss. If you were planning, on moving out before that all happened, you got to change your plans. Yeah, like change the closing date.

I don't know what to tell you. Change the plans. You got to. You got to. Because no matter what, it looks weird. Yeah. What is it called? Like, um, when you rent to somebody else, like for a little minute, because you can't live there, like sub. Subletting. Yeah. Go sublet your place to someone else. Yeah, just for a little while till it all chills out. Now later on, this particular guy was actually talking to one of Beth's friends and encouraged this friend not to speak with the police. What? Yeah. There's some shady shit going on here.

And it's so shady that that's like all you can find on it. Yeah. Like that's it. Like I read Vicky's entire book and that's what we like she has so much information in there about like other stuff. But there's certain things that everybody's just like can't crack through. But what? Yeah. Like I don't get it.

Now Beth's friends also later confirmed that she was thinking of ending things with Fergus or at the very least like hitting him up with some kind of ultimatum. She was really struggling with the fact that this was going on with a married man. She knew his children because she worked on the farm. And she told her friends that she didn't want to be the one to break up a family. So she was having a hard time with it. I'm just going to stay over here. I'll stay in my lane. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, totally. So some of her friends in the beginning, which would have been us, were like, you need to run the other way. This can quickly become a dangerous situation to get involved. with somebody else's husband. Yeah. Like nobody thought that this was going to happen. Of course not.

But in general, like, you're, when you're playing with fire. Yeah. Like getting involved in a situation like that, obviously, again, no one deserves that kind of thing by any stretch of the imagination. But you are putting yourself in a position where you are upsetting people on a galactic level. Yeah. And it's like whether it's his fault or not, you know what I mean? Like you are, you know, you are going to be a target of.

of hatred in this scenario. So it's like, you got to back out of that. You got to get out of that. And when there's kids involved, it's, that brings it to a whole other level. And it's like emotions go so much higher with that shit. Because now it's a family. Now there's kids involved. Right. There's just too much. It's like you just got to run the other way. Right. Run the other way. There's so many fish in the sea. There's so many fish in the sea. But we can't, you know, we can't go back here. We cannot. So Beth, this is just like a spooky little tidbit. Beth and her friends had taken a trip about a year before she died.

I think they were in the Maldives. And she spent a good time talking to them about her and Fergus's relationships. They all kind of were talking about their relationships. And while they were away, I guess there was a man that approached them. And he was like, oh, I read palms. Like, can I read you guys as palms? And they were like, oh, yeah, like that's fun. Like, sure.

So the two friends went first and he did the whole thing, you know. And then Beth presented her palm to be read and he looked at it and paused and like looked back up at her with this weird look. And he was like, I'm too tired. Like I'm sorry. I can't read your palm. Like I got to go. What? He was like I just, he made up like some weird excuse and was like I can't do it.

I would have been terrified if I were her because you know that's not. Oh my, this man approaches you. Bad omen, bad omen, bad omen, bad omen. And your two friends are like, you're going to get married and how. have this many kids and like, you know, maybe next summer might be difficult, but you'll get through it. You're going to have your hot girl summer next summer. And then he gets to you and he's like, no, sorry, I'm too tired. I'd be like, you got to tell me what's going to happen now. Like something bad's going to happen. So I guess at the time, I mean, they were young. They were all like

like, like Beth was 23 when she passed away or excuse me when she was murdered. At the time, like they didn't think anything of it. But looking back, that must be so haunting. That's so because it's like, did he look at her palm and see that this was going to happen? Or do you see that he probably saw that something like bad was like nefarious like she was going to get murdered she was going to die in some bad way yeah and he was like yeah and a lot of these people will won't like tell you the bad stuff yeah like they just won't or like they'll ask you too like do you want to hear the bad stuff and i always say no yeah i'm like no i don't i don't i usually just say like i don't want to know if i'm going to die you know what that's john has like a pretty like real psychic in his family tree yeah

who has like since passed away like a long time ago but she was like a known one. You have to say how she was born. Oh, and I guess like psychics are born. Like there's this like lore that they're born with like a veil on their face, like a membrane of some sort. And she was. That's so crazy.

And John's grandmother never got readings from her because she was like, because she would only give you the good and the bad. She was like, I will not leave out the bad. You have to take it all or you don't take any of it. Right. And John's grandmother was like, fuck no, I don't want it. And I was like, I feel you, dude. I wouldn't want to know.

She was like, nope, I don't need to know. Because she was like, if I hear something bad, that's all I'm going to think about. In my opinion, fate is fate. I don't want to know. No. It's going to happen anyway. Because then that's all I'm going to think about. At some point, I'll know.

That's like, I don't, that's too much for me. Way too much. Wild. It's so creepy. Now, back to this. So that all happened. And then they all looked back and were like, oh, my God. Oh, my God.

But back to this whole thing about Vivian killing herself. People that, the people that aren't buying it, point to this next piece of information as the smoking gun signal. So Glenda Frost, I thought you were going to laugh at that. I was, but I was like, I was, but then I thought that it wasn't funny. So Glenda Frost, a woman who Vivian worked with at the community house, actually spoke with police and told them that she had received a phone call on September 23rd, and she knew for sure that she was speaking to Vivian. Huh. They apparently spoke of sewing patterns and a specific gift that was going to be for another coworker. So this was a conversation that like Glenda was like,

nope, this is Vivian. Like only she knew about this specific pattern and maybe this specific gift. And she also said that she thought she heard Vivian's two young sons in the background. And she was like, there's no way that she just committed a frenzied murder like Beth's and then just called me at 10 a.m. Like, hey, what about the sewing pattern? And she was with her kids. Or like she, Glenda thought that she was with her kids or at least two voices were in the background. Huh. Yeah. That's interesting. So that was 10 a.m. And Glenda had somebody there to back her up. She was working with a friend named Pam that day at home, like doing some sewing stuff. And Pam confirmed not only the day, but also the time. Because this, like, the police went over there to hear this whole thing. And obviously

they were like, you probably messed up the day. Yeah, of course. But I guess it was like, there was going to be some specific holiday on Thursday, but the people in Phillips Island like celebrated the particular holiday on Monday, so they were home for the day. So it made it very easy to like, I know that it was Monday. Yeah. Now, the time happened to be five hours after the car was spotted on the bridge, though, and Vivian, according to the police, should have already been dead at that point. Huh. Yeah. And by the way, remember how Robin had noticed Vivian's purse was at the house when she went to go watch the boys? Robin said not only was it there that night, but it was there the next morning. That doesn't make any sense, though, because Vivian's purse was later found abandoned in the car. In the car?

Mm-hmm. But Robin was like, no, I saw her purse that day. Like, I know. And she was like, it was that purse. Wow, the plot thickens. The plot thickens so much and it's only going to get thicker. This is oozy. So that doesn't make any sense. So that led some people to believe that maybe she had come home at some point. She must have. But that doesn't make sense because she wouldn't have been able to take the land cruiser because so many people had seen it parked on the bridge. So was she working with like somebody else and like she stopped home? What? Add some cornstarch to this because it's thickening. It's thickening, literally. And the purse would have had to have been placed in the car sometime after

Robin left and before the police got to the bridge. So Robin left probably like in the morning at some point. I don't know the exact time. But the police got to the car at four. So I guess there was time for it to be maybe planted there to make it look weird or like. Wow. This is. I just don't understand the significance and the point. Like, why would you do that? And again, we would have to assume that Vivian would have had to go in a different car. So it's like, wouldn't you think that she would have been spotted at least? Like I remember when like Thelma Todd was supposed to be dead at a certain point. And like four people were like, oh, no, I saw her in a car. Like, I talked to her on the phone. Because I mean, I assume if you're leaving the car there, you're trying to make it look like you're dead. So absolutely, obviously you'll like leave everything there. But it's like, this is all just so strange the way it's set up. And it's only going to get weirder. Really? Because in the 1990s, DNA testing, baby.

DNA. So they were able to do some DNA testing on some of the evidence. Dude, I can't. So strangely enough, Vivian's blood was found on the knife left beside Beth's body. But none of Vivian's DNA was found on Beth's body. again her DNA was found on the knife like her blood was found on the knife correct but not on Vivian who she excuse me not on Beth who she presumably like viciously like went crazy and murdered her there's no fucking way yeah that's a that's so that's our head scratch and one of the other things

that they thought when they had like looked over Beth's body was that whoever had killed her had like smeared the blood all around her, like had like rubbed it in almost. Ooh. Which is like, I don't even know what you would do that. No, I don't even know what the significance of that is. Exactly. And then, so the knife lying next to Beth's body was covered in blood that could belong to Vivian or about 30% of the population with the same blood type and groupings.

So it's not necessary. Like people love to be like, and that was her blood. It can always like, I know. Be attributed to a couple other people. And I feel like. like that's important to note because the other thing is that the knife laying next to Beth's body didn't necessarily match up with the wounds that were covering her body or the puncture marks in the clothing that she had been wearing, which is weird. Now, the knife lying beside her was just like a

straight up kitchen knife, but the markings on the body and the clothes show like one large tear, like vertical tear and then two smaller ones like next to it on the bottom. Oh, okay. Now Vicky, who co-wrote the book that I mentioned in the beginning, she actually spoke with a knife expert after speaking with the forensic scientist who went over all the evidence in Beth's case. And he doesn't think that the knife lying next to Beth's body was used to kill her. It makes sense. If it's just a plain old kitchen knife, that doesn't seem like that would make that cut. No, definitely not.

Now, so he doesn't think that either. And I mean, he's fucking forensic scientist. He knows what he's talking about, you know? But so Vicky decided to go a step further, and she spoke with a knife expert who told her about this knife that was popular around the time that Beth was killed. And he told her that now the knife was actually banned, like they're not sold anymore. Really? But he did send her some sketches of it. And it had one long blade and then two sharp prongs on either side.

So if you were to stab somebody like going down, it would be like the one marking and then the two on the side. So it would make sense. Oh, I think I know exactly what kind of knife that is. I can post the picture in my head. Yeah, it's like it's almost looks like a floor delete. Yes, exactly. That's exactly what I was thinking of. Yes.

So that's the kind of thing that it was. But I didn't see anything else that like went from there. Like I was like, okay, so we don't think that was the knife. But like it has her blood on it. But her DNA isn't on Beth. I don't understand. When? Where?

And then every time you start to think, okay, like is Vivian? innocent, there's another bend in the road. Her DNA was found only on a towel, the knife, and then cigarette butts found in the house. So she was there. I was going to say so she was there. She absolutely was there. Now, the towel that was found in the bathroom only contained Vivian's blood. None of Beth's blood was found on the specific towel. I mean, I guess you could assume that if Vib had to use this to clean up, and there would be plenty of blood to clean up, then Beth's blood would have gotten on it unless somehow, I mean, it would be remarkable if she didn't cut herself while committing this crazy act. That's what I would. And Beth had a lot of defensive wounds.

So she was fighting back. Exactly. So I would think that Vivian definitely got cut somehow and maybe just used that towel. Yeah. So I don't, it's just, it's so weird because you think you know. Yeah. I mean, I'm leaning. Yeah. She was there. She was there. Like, what was she doing there? Yeah. It's just, it's so great. Yeah, I think it doesn't vote well. No, it definitely doesn't. Now, Vivian's blood was also found in her own home, although she hadn't been treated at the hospital after, like, during her and Fergus's visit there, like, she wasn't treated for anything. Yeah. So that's why some people think that the crime wasn't committed solely by Vivian and have questioned things over the years of like, was somebody else there with her? Yeah. Because maybe she went home to like, maybe like say goodbye to her kids or something like that. Like, And, like, they don't remember it because they were so little or, like, they didn't wake up or something. Yeah. And she had gotten blood on the floor from, like, a wound that she had.

Yeah. I mean, that makes sense to me. Absolutely. I think that's, like, the only possibility thing that you could think of. Now, but I really don't know who would have been there that night if she hadn't done it alone because Fergus was at his sister and brother-in-law's house than an entire night before. Yeah. And no one heard him leave.

And they checked on him, like, early the next morning and he was sleeping. Yeah. But some people do find it shady because Fergus, held like a memorial at the farm for Vivian when she technically wasn't officially dead yet. I guess when somebody disappears, it has to be like seven years before they were dead. Yeah, before they're declared dead. But she, and it obviously hadn't been seven years yet. And other people point out the fact that Vivian had a very big share in the Phillip Island Grand pre-unit or circuit too. Oh. So it's like, could that have something to do with it?

Because she did have a will in place. And I guess that share would have been left to someone. So maybe they kind of just had to have this memorial and figure out what to do with her will. Oh, maybe. And then the people that are like kind of like sort of on Fergus's side are like it also was a really important thing to do for the boys because like they need to experience a normal grieving process. I can understand. Yep.

So I don't think that's weird. As much as I want to like, I want to like kick Fergus in the ass just for being a shitty husband. Yeah. I don't think that's shady. I don't think. And I also don't think that leads to you automatically are a murderer as well or like a, you know.

No. I think you're. just kind of a jerk. You can be shitty in one spot and not shitty in every spot, you know, so I don't want to like totally cast him as like, and I agree with you. I think it's, I think he was just a shitty husband. And I think he was trying to do it for his kids. And I think that might have been for the kids. Absolutely. It would make sense. I would hope that would be the reason, because that would be a healthy thing to do. I would think so. So a coronial inquest did put some people's mind to rest. I guess in July of 1988, the coroner B.J. Mayor said a Vivian, quote,

Although her body has not been found, I am satisfied that she is dead and that she leapt from the San Remo Bridge in the water below. And I am satisfied that the deceased contributed to the cause of death of Beth. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I could see all of that being true. I could too. I think people kind of want to make it more of a mystery than it is. Yeah, it's always one of those things where you think like she took off and she's living somewhere and suddenly she's going to pop up somewhere.

I mean, they never found her body. It's possible. It's possible. Some of the divers were like, no, like we searched every single inch of that place. I mean, when you don't have a body, it is always possible. You can't 100% say. Exactly. Sure, he can be satisfied that she's dead and that's fine.

And we can all say, sure, that makes sense. Right. But there is a possibility because there is no body. Absolutely. If we don't know. Even some of the detectives, like the original investigators on this case, have differing opinions from each other. Oh, I believe. Oh, I believe that they probably have.

So many different theories. Oh, I mean, you would have to. Like, because it's just all out of the open. You can't stop talking about that either. Yeah. It's just wild. But people on Phillip Island apparently do not like to talk about the murder of Beth. Really? Or the disappearance of Vivian. I mean, we actually had a listener who suggested this. And they spent some time living on Philip Island and they weren't able to talk to any of the locals about it. Really? And then Vicki's book that I've mentioned was banned on the island. You could not buy it on the island. And then there was a newspaper that, was like put out on one day that was supposed to be like it was like a full headline all about the murder and the disappearance and a group of people went around and bought every single one so that you couldn't purchase them which is fucking weird that's wild it's fucking weird and vicky said when she tried to speak with people on the island about it they were very reluctant to speak with her and they warned her like not to write the book they were like you could be sued or like it's just not a good idea. But she was like, they're just trying to intimidate me. Like, fuck you, I'm going to write my book. They have a penguin parade. You're not supposed to be like covering up a murder.

There's more penguin than people. Was it the penguins that took all the newspapers? You guys are trying to like, you know, just protect all the penguins? Right. Because, wow. It's so crazy, dude. But that is the case of the Phillip Island murder. I think you should all go listen to like the 10 part like that Vicky has done because I can't even imagine. I bet it's amazing. I want to listen to it now. I'm always so. reluctant to listen to a podcast if I'm going to do a podcast on it. Yeah, of course. Because like you don't like, you don't want to like, subconsciously like have something in your mind. And then you're like, oh, fuck why'd I say that? Yeah, you think like their theory is now your theory. Yeah, exactly. You don't

want that to subconsciously happen. But now I'm excited to listen to that. That's what I always love to do is listen to it after we do the case. Yeah. And I'm like, nine times out of time, I'm like, oh man, that's such a good like theory or something. Well, if I hear anything good, I can share it on like the next episode and just be like, oh my God, according to Vicki, this is this. But. But definitely also by her book, The Phillip Island Murder. It's by her and a man named Paul Dealey. And he was involved in writing the newspaper headlines. Yeah, he worked for the particular newspaper that like put out the papers. That is so wild. It's crazy. That's wild. This entire case. I've been having nightmares about it. The A sent me. The A is so like that is such a piece of

I mean, that's, to me, that's a smoking gun almost because it's just so on the nose. It's so pointing to what is going on here. And this was just pure rage. Like the way that she was killed. Yeah. Rage. Rage. Like absolute rage. There's no other. But it's like, could it have been, Vivian, I think, did it for sure. Yeah. I mean, in my opinion, it sounds like she did it. I mean, her DNA is like there and shit like that. Yeah, I don't know how. Her blood is on the towels. Like, something bad happened at that place. But like what if Vivian and the stalker like met up? That's the other thing.

It's like, you don't know. Maybe she knew him. It's a small island. Yeah. And apparently everybody knew everybody's shit. Right. Because everybody knew like the affair and everything. And then everybody's so reluctant to talk about it now.

I think it's because they are so tight knit that they know everybody's stuff. And they're like, no. Like I think it's like one of those like. Yeah. Unspoken packs that like we don't we don't talk about each other shit well and I think they protect their own over there because The Cameron family is a very prominent family with like business dealings everywhere on that island So I don't think people are like I'm not fucking with that I'm not talking about them. I'm not doing anything yeah And I honestly I can't really and Fergus I'm pretty sure still lives on the island yeah so

Whoa, fucking crazy dude that's crazy and I mean poor Beth I know she just got she got she got wrapped up in a bad situation. That's exactly what it was. And it's sad because it seems like she was kind of getting to the point where she was like, I can't do this anymore. Like, you need to leave your wife or we need to end things. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow, Phillip Island. With the penguins and the murders. Man, you have the best and the worst. You really do. You really do. You have a penguin parade. You literally have a penguin parade. I want to go to that. of penguins, a huge little community of penguins. A bunch of people requested this case. I saw like, I think there was like five separate emails in our inbox being like, please do this.

Awesome. Yeah, your suggestions are the tits. Literally. I've been finding so many new things that I'm like going to shout you guys out and be like, another suggestion. Because you guys are the best. We love you. But yeah, that's crazy. And thank you for that. Welcome. So much. And yeah, we stay tuned for some cool stuff this week. Yeah, we got. cool stuff going on. We got some cool stuff. And we hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you just are like like go little blah blah blah. Not so weird that you don't just like go to the penguin parade and stay there and like have so much fun on Phillip Island. Like definitely don't murder anybody on Phillip Island because you don't want to

keep it that weird. Thank you. Good night. Thank you again good night. By Philip Island. So insane.