A murdered mistress; a missing wife; a forty-year mystery. In 1986, a young woman called Bethany Barnard was savagely murdered and her lover’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The authorities instantly jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed her husband’s much younger mistress and then committed suicide. Vivienne’s body was never found. But the young Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced by the official conclusion. Not only were there plenty of pieces that didn’t fit, but there was a strange silence about the case on Phillip Island - two hours and a world away from Melbourne. An incident such as this would usually be the talk of a small community. Was it just institutional sexism that discounted any other explanation for the murder? Or was the silence something to do with the Camerons - an influential local family? Was this a case of the Phillip Island murder - or murders? No-one was ever prosecuted; the silence settled; but the mystery endured. More than thirty years after co-authoring her first book on the murder with Paul Daley, Petraitis has kept finding small pieces of new evidence. When she became an influential podcaster with ‘Casefiles’, she made a series about the murder, jogging the memories of some who heard it, and questions that weren’t asked at the time slowly emerged. Now, to mark the fortieth anniversary of Bethany’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened, and who might have done it.

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Vikki Petraitis

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A murdered young woman; a missing wife; a forty-year mystery.

In 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend's wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne's body was never found.

But Vikki Petraitis wasn't convinced. The official line didn't explain all the evidence, and it certainly didn't seem like the behaviour of a mother with two small boys. Fascinated by both the case and the bias it revealed in investigators, Petraitis wrote her first true-crime book about the murder, with Paul Daley, and decades later made a podcast on the case. Both brought new evidence and testimony to light, and asked questions that were not asked at the time.

Now, to mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth's murder and Vivienne's vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened all those years ago, and why.