An Island of Secrets - Part 1 of 2 - The Fateful Night

September 1986. A brutal murder on Phillip Island. A woman carved with the letter "A" for adulteress. Another woman vanished without trace. For forty years, Australia accepted the official story: jealous wife kills mistress, then commits suicide by jumping from a bridge.

But in January 2026, plumbers digging for a septic tank found human bones buried in the sand. And suddenly, questions that were never properly answered demanded attention.

Join us for Part 1 of the Phillip Island Mystery as we walk through the night of September 22nd, 1986. The wine glass attack, the hospital visit, the mysterious 3 AM phone call, and the discovery of Beth Barnard's body with a message carved into her chest. Every detail matters, because when you look closely, nothing about this night makes sense.

One night. Two women. Forty years of unanswered questions.

Sources

• Petraitis, Vikki and Paul Daley: The Phillip Island Murder (1993, 3rd edition 2018)
• Petraitis, Vikki: The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron: Forty Years Searching for the Phillip Island Murderer (Simon & Schuster, January 2026)
• Casefile Presents Podcast (2020): The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron
• Sensing Murder (2006) The Scarlett Letter (Series 1 - Episode 8)
• Under Investigation: Adultery, Murder and Mayhem (2021)

Title Music: by Jesse Frank from Pixabay

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