BAD SYDNEY 2023

Three people who have been missing for years. Three women recovering from painful events in their own lives stumble on the stories and can’t let them go. But it can be dangerous to dig up the past. What attracted these three debut writers to the mystery of the missing?

The developments in DNA analysis, combined with genealogy and old-fashioned detective work, means that unidentified remains can now more easily be linked to missing people, providing finality for the families, and in cold case crimes bringing a perpetrator like Joseph DeAngelo – the Golden State Killer – to justice over three decades after his crimes. Associate Professor Jodie Ward established the AFP National DNA Program for Unidentified and Missing Persons as part of her role at the AFP, for the identification of human remains. She talks with Associate Professor Xanthé Mallett, forensic anthropologist, criminologist and author, who also specialises in the identification of people using their DNA.

Take two but in which direction to go? Continue with the same characters if they haven’t all been killed off or create new ones? Four writers talk about their second books, which path they took and why.

The real story of the Frontier Wars and massacres of Indigenous people following the arrival of colonists in 1788 is only beginning to be told. Historians and writers Kate Auty, Tony Birch, Stephen Gapps and David Marr discuss the wars and massacres which took place throughout the continent, starting from two new books –  Kate Auty’s O’Leary of the Underworld and David Marr’s Killing for Country.

Former detective Craig Semple joined the New South Wales Police Force at 18 until he retired suffering from PTSD many years later. Gary Jubelin has interviewed him for the I catch killers podcast  but there is much more to say. In this live show, Gary and Craig go further into Craig’s story of extreme life events and how human endurance and belief can lead to the triumph of good over evil.

You’ve been accused of a serious crime. What happens now? How does the criminal justice system work?  You might be innocent or you might be guilty but few sounds can be more terrifying than the sound a cell door locking behind you for the first time. How did you get there? This session will take you through the justice system from arrest to court, to remand, to a trial and to innocence and freedom or conviction and perhaps prison- and give an insight into the challenges in defending yourself with the resources of the state aimed at you.

‘Don’t kill the dog’ may be the unwritten but oft broken rule of crime fiction, but are there other limits that writers face? Are there topics to be avoided? When is too much violence in a genre that deals with the problem of violence more than enough? What personal boundaries do writers set for themselves? Sue Turnbull travels to the outer limits with three crime writers in order to discover just how far they will go in the pursuit of their craft.

What makes Kiwi crime fiction from across the ditch different from Australian crime fiction? Is it the setting? But what if the book is not set in Aotearoa New Zealand but in New York? Is it where the author lives? But what if they live in Melbourne? Join award-winning Kiwi crime writers, Jacqueline Bublitz, Nikki Crutchley, Chris Stuart and Fiona Sussman in conversation with R.W.R. McDonald, discussing all things Aotearoa New Zealand crime fiction, what it means to be a Kiwi crime writer, and the current state of the market.

The Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ Hate Crimes

From the late 1970s to the early 1990s more than 80 men died or disappeared in what looked like an epidemic of gay hate crimes. Many of these were dismissed by the NSW Police as suicide or misadventure and investigations were often cursory at best. The Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes, was set up to investigate unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of LGBTIQ people in NSW between 1970 and 2010. It is first of its kind worldwide. After a year of investigation and public hearings the Commission has uncovered serious flaws in the way some of these cases were handled, new evidence has been revealed  and delivered a dose of reality on the state of cold case murder investigations in NSW. Duncan McNab (author of Getting Away with Murder), magistrate Jacqueline Milledge, lawyer Nicholas Stewart and journalist Michael Burge talk about the Inquiry and what it has achieved.

 The State Library has become a backdrop for murder. There is a body bag in the foyer of the Mitchell Library.  Who has died and who is the murderer? An active crime scene full of evidence is ready for investigation in a race against time. You don’t have long to solve the mystery.  Participants work in teams to solve the case. Each team needs to examine all the evidence, sift through garbage (gloves provided!), test for DNA, do fingerprinting, interview witnesses, then get together over a glass of wine to decide who they think is the culprit before all is revealed.  Put all your crime reading and watching to good use to see if you can find the guilty party.