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The Veil - A True Crime Podcast with Ryan Wolf
E25 | "We Want to Go Back" - The Adelaide Oval Abduction
Season 1, Ep. 25
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On a cold Saturday afternoon in August 1973, eleven-year-old Joanne Ratcliffe took four-year-old Kirste Gordon to the toilet at the Adelaide Oval, and the two of them never came back. Thirteen thousand people were at the football. Three witnesses, in three different parts of the city, watched a middle-aged man carry the smaller girl through the parkland while the older one fought him for the entire kilometre. None of them stopped him. Fifty-three years on, the case is still open. Ryan Wolf listens for what's still behind the veil.
While some dramatic license is taken during the retelling of these stories, but you can be sure that these true crime stories are all based 100% on real events and facts.
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This podcast is researched, and written by the Brevity Studios team using AI tools, and is narrated in its entirety by - Ryan Wolf.
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26. E26 | The Murder of Kurt Cobain?
38:06||Season 1, Ep. 26On the morning of 8 April 1994, an electrician named Gary Smith climbed the stairs to a greenhouse above a Seattle garage and discovered the body of Kurt Cobain. The ruling was suicide. It held for thirty years — through a Seattle Police review, through documentaries, through one private investigator who never accepted it. Then in November 2025, an international forensic team published a peer-reviewed paper concluding Kurt was murdered and the scene was staged. We walk through the discovery, the note, Courtney Love's vigil reading, and the new evidence — what holds up, and what doesn't.
24. E24 | Aramoana - Pathway to the Sea
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23. E23 | Natalie Wood - Beware Dark Water
39:02||Season 1, Ep. 23The death of Hollywood star Natalie Wood remains one of the industry’s most enduring mysteries. In November 1981, Wood vanished from a yacht off Catalina Island during a weekend trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken. Hours later, her body was found floating in dark, cold waters. Officially ruled an accidental drowning at the time, the case has since been reopened amid conflicting accounts, shifting testimonies, and lingering questions about what happened that night. This episode examines the timeline, the key figures on board, and the unresolved inconsistencies that continue to fuel speculation decades later, leaving one haunting question: was it truly an accident?
22. E22 | Special Series: Byron Bay - The Secret Coast - Part 3/3
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21. E21 | Special Series: Byron Bay - The Mystery - Part 2/3, Jackson Stacker
39:41||Season 1, Ep. 21Jackson Stacker’s death in Byron Bay raised more questions than answers. What initially appeared routine quickly unravelled into a case marked by inconsistencies, missing details, and uneasy silence. This episode examines the known facts, the gaps in the narrative, and why Stacker’s final hours continue to provoke suspicion and scrutiny.
20. E20 | Special Series: Byron Bay - The Vanishings. Part 1/3, Theo Hayez
39:36||Season 1, Ep. 20This is Part One of Three of our Special Series Byron Bay VanishingsIn May 2019, 18-year-old Belgian backpacker Theo Hayez vanished after a night out in Byron Bay, Australia. He was last seen leaving the Cheeky Monkey's bar in the early hours of May 31st. Despite an extensive search involving police, volunteers, and his family who flew from Belgium, Theo was never found. His phone data showed he had headed toward Tallow Beach. The case remains officially unsolved, leaving his family with no closure.
19. E19 | The Man on the Hill - The Koiterangi Incident
40:44||Season 1, Ep. 19In October 1941, a struggling West Coast farmer named Stanley Graham shot four police officers on his remote Koiterangi property, then vanished into the New Zealand bush. What followed was the largest manhunt in New Zealand history — hundreds of police, soldiers, and Home Guardsmen, aircraft overhead, a tank in the valley — all hunting one wounded man for thirteen days. By the time it ended, seven people were dead. This is the story of how a quiet farming community was torn apart, how a nation at war turned its attention inward, and how some crimes leave wounds that never fully close.