Episodes
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The last of the so-called 'lunatic asylums' closed only 20 years ago. They were founded on ideas of paternalism and social progress and survived on the basis they offered safety. In this special crossover with the Black Sheep podcast, William Ray and Kirsty Johnston look into their origins.
The last of the so-called 'lunatic asylums' closed only 20 years ago. They were founded on ideas of paternalism and social progress and survived on the basis they offered safety. In this special crossover with the Black Sheep podcast, William Ray and Kirsty Johnston look into their origins.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Kirsty tries to find out if Nellie did have another baby, and where that baby might be, but gets stuck in a kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucracy. Sarah reflects on her journey to find Nellie. We talk to a disability expert about what Nellie's story really means, and if things are better now.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
The Coronial file brings us back to the question: Is there a sibling for Sarah out there somewhere?
Kirsty tries to find out if Nellie did have another baby, and where that baby might be, but gets stuck in a kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucracy.
Sarah reflects on her journey to find Nellie. We talk to a disability expert about what Nellie's story really means, and if things are better now.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Missing episodes?
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Nellie's coronial file reveals more about her death - and her life. There are badly healed broken bones, a skin graft, evidence of a fall three days before she died in which she broke her nose. Was her death malicious? Or was it just neglect?
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
Nellie's coronial file reveals more about her death - and her life.
There are badly healed broken bones, a skin graft, evidence of a fall three days before she died in which she broke her nose. Was her death malicious? Or was it just neglect?
When she died, the doctors didn't even know what drugs Nellie was on. Who should be accountable?
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Kirsty and Sarah go to see Mavis, Nellie's sister, who tells them that she thinks Nellie was raped, which led to her breakdown and incarceration. Mavis tells Sarah about the day she was born, and how the family wanted to keep her but couldn't.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
"I want justice for Nellie, because if something happened and they covered it up, I want to know." - Mavis
While Sarah was delighted to meet Gordon, questions about Nellie's life and death remain.
Kirsty and Sarah go to see Mavis, Nellie's sister, who tells them that she thinks Nellie was raped, which led to her breakdown and incarceration.
Mavis tells Sarah about the day she was born, and how the family wanted to keep her but couldn't. She is amazed to hear that Sarah's middle name, Annemarie, is the name Nellie gave her.
She describes Nellie's care after Porirua closed, and how the care homes treated her terribly.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Sarah goes to meet Gordon. We learn that he can remember Nellie, and remembers being caught with her in the bushes. Gordon tells us about his time at the asylum, and Sarah takes him on an outing where they spend time together.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
"I'm just so happy for Gordon, this is the most excited I've seen him in a long while." - Sharon
Sarah goes to meet Gordon. He is delighted to meet her, and gives her a gift of a tiny sailboat preserved in perspex.
We learn that Gordon can remember Nellie, and remembers being caught with her in the bushes. Sex for the patients was off-limits, despite them having many other freedoms.
Gordon tells us about his time at the asylum, and Sarah takes him on an outing where they spend time together.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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The mystery relative turns out to be Sharon, her father's sister. She decides to fly to Australia to meet her newly-discovered niece. Sharon tells us how her family was extremely poor and her mother, Thelma had all her children taken from her. Gordon, Sarah's dad, was one of those kids.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
"He liked the hospital. But he didn't like the shock therapy. ... He said the name of the doctor. He liked doing it." - Sharon
The mystery relative turns out to be Sharon, Sarah's aunt and her father's sister.
She decides to come to New Zealand from Australia and meet her newly-discovered niece. Sarah is nervous, and keen to find out more of her father's backstory.
Sharon tells us how her family was extremely poor and her mother, Thelma, had all her children taken from her. Gordon, Sarah's dad, was one of those kids. He ended up in foster care, and, aged 18, tried to kill himself.
He was left brain-damaged and that's how he ended up in Porirua. Sarah and Sharon meet for the first time, and take a tour of Porirua psychiatric hospital, which is both eye-opening and disturbing.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Sarah and Kirsty call in the big guns: DNA. A strong match comes up: a woman who shares 28% of Sarah's DNA. Is it Nellie's first child? Eventually, Fran, the genealogist, suggests the match could be an aunt, and Sarah works up the courage to send a message to this mystery relative.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
"To know that I have two people who did really want me - if he's mentally disabled and she was, they probably wanted me but they just couldn't - for the first time I feel like I belong properly." - Sarah
Sarah and Kirsty call in the big guns: DNA. Working with a genealogist, they dig through ancestry records to try to find Sarah's relatives.
A strong match comes up: a woman who shares 28% of Sarah's DNA. Is it Nellie's first child? But the woman's profile is private and all of Sarah's insecurities surface - do her family want nothing to do with her?
Eventually, Fran, the genealogist, suggests the match could be an aunt, and Sarah works up the courage to send a message to this mystery relative.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Kirsty and Sarah start investigating from opposite sides of the world. We learn what it was like to live at Porirua, and fight through red tape to get Sarah's adoption records, which reveal more about Nellie's background.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
"I feel like they've got control of the narrative - if it's one of several men they say were my father why don't they name them? Are they leaving that out to protect me?" - Sarah
How did Nellie end up incarcerated as a teenager? Kirsty and Sarah start investigating from opposite sides of the world - Sarah lives in the UK and won't be back in New Zealand for another month.
We learn what it was like to live at Porirua, and fight through red tape to get Sarah's adoption records, which reveal more about Nellie's background.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Out of the blue, Kirsty receives an email from a stranger titled "Investigating the possible murder of my mother". The author is Sarah, a young woman who was born to Nellie Wilson in a psychiatric hospital in the mid-1980s in Wellington and secretly adopted out.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
Out of the blue, Kirsty receives an email from a stranger titled: "Investigating the possible murder of my mother".
The author is Sarah, a young woman who was born in a psychiatric hospital in the mid-1980s in Wellington. Sarah was adopted out, and only learned the true circumstances of her early life recently, after her birth mother, Nellie, died.
She wants help to look into her past, and to answer the many questions about Nellie.
Why was she in an institution? Did she have another baby? And most of all, was her death an accident, or something worse?
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
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Kirsty Johnston follows Sarah as she hunts for her biological mother, who turns out to have been an institutionalised mental health patient in Porirua Hospital. And that's only the start of the story.
To see more images and details about the series, vist the website here.
In the summer of 2022, investigative journalist Kirsty Johnston saw an email in her junk folder with an intriguing subject line: "Investigating the possible murder of my mother"
The message came from Sarah, a New Zealand woman living in the UK who'd been adopted at birth from Porirua Psychiatric Hospital.
Now in her mid-30s, Sarah had mustered the courage to contact her birth family, only to learn that her biological mother, Nellie, had died years earlier in what her biological aunt and cousins believed to be suspicious circumstances.
Sarah was left with unanswered questions. Who was her birth father? Why was Nellie admitted to Porirua Hospital in the first place? How did she truely die?
In this eight-part RNZ podcast, Sarah and Kirsty work together to uncover Nellie's story.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details
