Episodes
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Olympian and world champion snowboarder Alex “Chumpy” Pullin tragically lost his life in 2020 while spearfishing in a free diving accident near the Gold Coast.
As the snowboarding community grieved the loss of the popular 32-year-old, Chumpy’s long-term partner, Ellidy Vlug, was left devastated. The couple had just bought their dream home on the Gold Coast and were trying for a baby.
After Chumpy’s death, Laura and Ellidy’s brother Dave came to Ellidy in her darkest moment to suggest posthumous sperm retrieval from Chumpy. 37 hours after Chumpy died, and with the consent of his family, a doctor successfully removed viable sperm.
7NEWS Spotlight reporter Denham Hitchcock spoke with Ellidy, their family and the couple’s friends, including legendary surfer Mick Fanning, over several months, creating a documentary that delivers a heart-warming and fascinating look at love, loss and miracles.
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New developments in the global mystery surrounding UFOs with host Michael Usher and investigative journalist Ross Coulthart. An Australian witness to the infamous Westall incident in Melbourne finally breaks their silence about a cover-up.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEczN_8Q380
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Missing episodes?
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Criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro and criminal anthropologist Dr Xanthe Mallett join Michael Usher to delve into the minds of some of the world's worst psychopaths, narcissists and sociopaths to unravel the real reasons behind their chilling crimes. Cases include Dalia Dippolito, Jerrod Murray, Fiona Barbieri and Ivan Milat.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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This major 7NEWS investigation examines the critical errors and cover-ups in the deepening Ruby Princess coronavirus crisis, to date responsible for seven deaths and 10 percent of all COVID-19 cases in Australia.
Featuring interviews with key players at the centre of the developing scandal and passengers aboard the fateful cruise, 7NEWS reveals damning new information in documents obtained from the highest echelons of government detailing the truth of what the boarding passengers of the Ruby Princess unwittingly walked into, and those who knew about it.
It was a cruise that should have been cancelled. When 2,700 holidaymakers boarded the Ruby Princess on March 8 for a round-tour of New Zealand, what they didn’t know was they were walking on to a floating petri dish that, hours before they’d stepped aboard, sick passengers from the previous tour had disembarked.
By the time the ship returned to Sydney in the early hours on March 19, the COVID-19 virus had spread rapidly through the ship. Yet all passengers were granted permission to come ashore and use any means of travel to return to their homes both in Australia and in many cases, overseas – no warnings of the dangers they faced, the peril on board, and the danger they now posed to the wider community.
7NEWS investigative reporter Denham Hitchcock presents this explosive investigation into how the Ruby Princess became a breeding ground for the largest cluster of COVID-19 in the country, now spread to every state and territory – and other parts of the world.
This special originally aired April 5, 2020.
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Five-time Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist Ross Coulthart – who has been investigating the phenomena for the past two years – has led the 7NEWS Spotlight team across the US, amassing never-before-seen compelling evidence and speaking to the key players behind an event that will change the course of history. Featuring interviews with the highest echelons of military defence and intelligence officials, leading researchers, scientists and witnesses in America and Australia, this mind-blowing documentary years in the making seeks to answer the most fundamental question there is: are we alone?
Watch this investigation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtpxiNvGCp4
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The arrival of the COVID-19 Delta variant has thrown Australia’s two biggest cities back into lockdown, prompted State borders to slam shut again, and raised even more questions about the glacial pace of the nation’s vaccine rollout.
This 7NEWS Spotlight special examines how the Delta variant found its way here, why so much of Australia has been plunged back into crisis, and the terrible toll it is taking on the health of many Australians, our communities and our economy.
Told through the eyes of the people on the frontline – the real Australians who are fighting COVID-19 and fighting to survive it – this special report includes startling revelations about the failure of the vaccine rollout and first-hand accounts of battling the virus including from NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall.
7NEWS Spotlight: Delta Crisis Exposed is essential listening for all Australians, as we confront one of the biggest public health scares in our nation’s history.
Watch the episode on 7plus or YouTube.
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When Matthew Ames fell ill in June 2013, he thought he had just come down with the flu. And four doctors agreed, sending him home to rest. When the pain became unbearable, he took himself to hospital. Matthew had contracted a streptococcal infection that ravaged his body, leading to the amputation of both arms and both legs. Rather than dwell on what he'd lost, Matthew got on with rehabilitation and adjusting to his new normal, with his wife and four kids by his side. Mike Willesee met this incredible family in 2013.
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Australia was scarred forever by the horrors at Port Arthur in 1996. 35 people died when Bryant ran amok with his arsenal of weapons at the busy tourist destination of Port Arthur in Tasmania. The appalling crime wounded many more, scarred the nation, shocked the world and changed us forever. For the first time, his lawyer, his psychiatrist and his girlfriend break their silence to reveal new insights into the criminal mind of Australia’s worst mass murderer. But even more revealing is the video of the police interrogation of Bryant. Until this episode aired, it had never been shown outside court. Mike Willesee led this special investigation for Sunday Night. This episode originally aired in 2016.
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Madeleine McCann was just three years old when she vanished from her bed while on holiday in Portugal. There have been multiple sightings and her parents accused of foul play, but there's still no definitive answer as to what happened. Rahni Sadler sits down with Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, investigator Gonçalo Amaral, who was removed from the case, and other key players in the case.
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In this royal special event, Melissa Doyle sits down with those who knew Diana, Princess of Wales best: her butler Paul Burrell, her bodyguard Ken Wharfe, her best friend Rosa Monckton and journalist Richard Kay. They open up about the struggles behind the smile and the heartache inside that generous heart. Plus Diana's never-before-seen letters in which she predicted her death.
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In 2011, Canadian ex-pat Lisa Harnum was found dead at the bottom of a Sydney apartment building. Her fiance Simon Gittany was charged with her murder; he claimed she jumped from the balcony of their apartment. But three seconds of video would seal his fate. Investigative journalists Ross Coulthart and Steve Pennells recreate the story, the apartment, and meet the key people in both Lisa and Simon's life. This story contains course language and adult themes. This story originally aired in 2014.
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Anne Zappelli was a young woman from country Western Australia. The beauty queen and Miss Australia Quest contestant was raped and murdered in September 1969, aged just 20. Police bungled the investigation and the case was never solved. A chilling deathbed confession that pointed the finger at the suspect was also useless. How did police get it so wrong?
This story originally aired in 2012. Both prime suspects have since died.
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On July 18, 2009, the battered bodies of newsagent Min Lin, his wife Lily Lin, their sons Henry and Terry; and Lily's sister Irene were found in their North Epping home. Brenda Lin was the only family member to survive - saved only by a school trip to New Caledonia. After making pleas for public assistance to solve the case, Min's brother-in-law Robert Xie was charged with their murders in 2011. In 2017, Xie was found guilty of murdering all five members of the Lin family and sentenced to five life terms in jail. In February 2021, Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and Justices Robert Allan Hulme and Robert Beech-Jones rejected Xie's appeal and found Xie didn't suffer a miscarriage of justice.
This story originally aired on Sunday Night in 2017.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A group of seven carefree siblings and cousins, enjoying a moment of childhood independence as they walked to get ice cream from the shops on a hot Australian summer evening. There was laughter and jokes as they took turns on a bicycle – when without warning the unthinkable.
In the blink of an eye, an alleged drunk driver ploughs his out-of-control ute into the group at more than 100 kilometres per hour. Four young lives were instantly lost by the side of the road at Oatlands in Sydney’s west that fateful day in February this year – not even 10 minutes from their home. Three siblings, Antony Abdallah, 13, Angelina Abdallah, 12, and Sienna Abdallah, 8, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, who now share the same grave. It was a tragedy that rocked all of Australia. The details would break any heart.
Dedicated to honouring the memories of their children, these courageous families open up to Michael Usher in this emotional story no parent can miss.
Listen to Part Two now.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A group of seven carefree siblings and cousins, enjoying a moment of childhood independence as they walked to get ice cream from the shops on a hot Australian summer evening. There was laughter and jokes as they took turns on a bicycle – when without warning the unthinkable.
In the blink of an eye, an alleged drunk driver ploughs his out-of-control ute into the group at more than 100 kilometres per hour. Four young lives were instantly lost by the side of the road at Oatlands in Sydney’s west that fateful day in February this year – not even 10 minutes from their home. Three siblings, Antony Abdallah, 13, Angelina Abdallah, 12, and Sienna Abdallah, 8, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, who now share the same grave. It was a tragedy that rocked all of Australia. The details would break any heart.
Dedicated to honouring the memories of their children, these courageous families open up to Michael Usher in this emotional story no parent can miss.
Listen to Part One now.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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For more than three decades, the seven crimes known as the Family Court Murders remained the worst series of unsolved serial killings in Australian criminal history. Between 1980 and 1985, four people were murdered and dozens critically injured in a cruel five-year reign of terror across Sydney, aimed at the very heart of the country’s judicial system. Five bombings and multiple shootings targeting judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and innocent members of the public. There was only ever one prime suspect linked to all seven crimes but despite years of surveillance he was never charged. Leonard Warwick thought he was invincible, that he’d got away with murder. In 2013, a major Channel Seven investigation, led by award-winning journalist Ross Coulthart, would blow the case wide open. For the very first time in more than a quarter of a century, all the main witnesses who until that point had been too afraid to speak out, including Warwick’s daughter and ex-wife, would describe the events that rocked Australia. Coulthart’s forensic investigation would put the horrific murders and bombings back in the public focus – and in the spotlight of authorities. Unknown to Warwick, and long forgotten by police, was the crucial mistake that would bring him down. Buried deep in a box of archived evidence, Warwick’s blood collected from one of the bomb sites that would be analysed using advanced DNA technology. In this stunning conclusion, how Warwick's world came crashing down and the punishment he received for his crimes.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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For more than three decades, the seven crimes known as the Family Court Murders remained the worst series of unsolved serial killings in Australian criminal history. Between 1980 and 1985, four people were murdered and dozens critically injured in a cruel five-year reign of terror across Sydney, aimed at the very heart of the country’s judicial system. Five bombings and multiple shootings targeting judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and innocent members of the public. There was only ever one prime suspect linked to all seven crimes but despite years of surveillance he was never charged. Leonard Warwick thought he was invincible, that he’d got away with murder. In 2013, a major Channel Seven investigation, led by award-winning journalist Ross Coulthart, would blow the case wide open. For the very first time in more than a quarter of a century, all the main witnesses who until that point had been too afraid to speak out, including Warwick’s daughter and ex-wife, would describe the events that rocked Australia. Coulthart’s forensic investigation would put the horrific murders and bombings back in the public focus – and in the spotlight of authorities. Unknown to Warwick, and long forgotten by police, was the crucial mistake that would bring him down. Buried deep in a box of archived evidence, Warwick’s blood collected from one of the bomb sites that would be analysed using advanced DNA technology. In this special, Coulthart returns to the most dangerous story of his career with the next chapter and major new development in this ground-breaking investigation – was there another victim?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Lindy Tapes is a documentary six months in the making. It uncovers stunning new evidence in the now infamous Azaria Chamberlain case. ‘A dingo’s got my baby’- five words that will forever divide a nation. The tragic death of a baby girl in outback Australia that at one point in time became a T-Shirt slogan, a punchline. The trial one of the most publicised in our history. Incredibly, crucial parts of this story were never untold. Now, 40 years after baby Azaria’s disappearance and the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian criminal history, a major investigation from the 7NEWS Spotlight team unearths the secret police tape recordings never broadcast. In part two of this investigation, journalist Denham Hitchcock looks back at the impact of the trial, speaks to a jury member and uncovers evidence from an Indigenous tracker.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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The Lindy Tapes is a documentary six months in the making. It uncovers stunning new evidence in the now infamous Azaria Chamberlain case. ‘A dingo’s got my baby’- five words that will forever divide a nation. The tragic death of a baby girl in outback Australia that at one point in time became a T-Shirt slogan, a punchline. The trial one of the most publicised in our history. Incredibly, crucial parts of this story were never untold. Now, 40 years after baby Azaria’s disappearance and the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian criminal history, a major investigation from the 7NEWS Spotlight team unearths the secret police tape recordings never broadcast. In part one of this investigation, journalist Denham Hitchcock looks back on this baffling case and unveils previously unheard police tapes and interviews.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
