In 1974, a 17-year-old girl in Sydney answered the door to a man claiming to be an encyclopaedia salesman who carried nothing with him and left her with a chilling "full body rush" of fear.

Decades later, that woman's daughter - award-winning author Candice Fox - realised this family story aligned with the timeline of two unsolved homicides from the same neighbourhood. Candice details how this personal connection led her to report the encounter to police and attempt her own investigation into the deaths of Lynette White and Maria Smith and how these tragedies formed the inspiration for her new novel.

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Author Candice Fox doesn't just write crime; she lives it through research for her books, including a chilling five-hour, "full-contact" visit in a San Quentin jail with one of America’s worst serial killers, the notorious "Toolbox Killer.”

In this episode of I Catch Killers, Candice gives host Gary Jubelin a peek into a childhood she calls a madhouse…growing up with more than 150 foster siblings and a father who worked as a parole officer, giving her a glimpse into humanity’s darkest corners before she even hit double digits. Hear how she channels real‑world evil into compelling stories.

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On a stormy day, Cameron Hardiman’s Air Wing team got a call: there was a man in the middle of Bass Strait clinging to a broken yacht. What should have been a routine rescue turned brutal.

In Part 2, Cameron explains how that terrifying rescue pushed him into the AFP, where he broke up raids in the Solomon Islands, and played delivery driver for a $200 million cocaine bust. Cameron was eventually diagnosed with PTSD, and he talks to Gary Jubelin about the end of his police career.

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