Trace: Who Killed Maria James?

Product Description

Every cop has a case that dug its claws in and would not let go. For veteran detective Ron Iddles, it was his very first homicide case - the 1980 murder of single mother Maria James in the back of her Melbourne bookshop. He never managed to solve it, and it still grates like hell.

Maria's two sons, Mark and Adam, have lived in a holding pattern longer than Rachael Brown has been alive. When the investigative journalist learned that a crucial witness's evidence had never seen daylight, the case would start to consume her - just as it had the detective nearly four decades prior - so she asked for his blessing, and that of the James brothers, to review Maria's case.

In her exhaustive and exhausting 16-month investigation for the ABC podcast Trace, Rachael reviewed initial suspects, found one of her own, and uncovered devastating revelations about a forensic bungle and possible conspiracies that have inspired the coroner to consider holding a new inquest.

This is a mesmerising account, as Rachael traces back through her investigation - one that blew the dust off a 38-year-old cold case, gave a voice to the forgotten and the abused, and could have serious implications for two of the state's most powerful institutions.Every cop has a case that dug its claws in and would not let go. For veteran detective Ron Iddles, it was his very first homicide case - the 1980 murder of single mother Maria James in the back of her Melbourne bookshop. He never managed to solve it, and it still grates like hell.

Maria's two sons, Mark and Adam, have lived in a holding pattern longer than Rachael Brown has been alive. When the investigative journalist learned that a crucial witness's evidence had never seen daylight, the case would start to consume her - just as it had the detective nearly four decades prior - so she asked for his blessing, and that of the James brothers, to review Maria's case.

In her exhaustive and exhausting 16-month investigation for the ABC podcast Trace, Rachael reviewed initial suspects, found one of her own, and uncovered devastating revelations about a forensic bungle and possible conspiracies that have inspired the coroner to consider holding a new inquest.

This is a mesmerising account, as Rachael traces back through her investigation - one that blew the dust off a 38-year-old cold case, gave a voice to the forgotten and the abused, and could have serious implications for two of the state's most powerful institutions.
Broadcast journalist Rachael Brown is an RMIT graduate who began her career with the ABC in 2002 as its Melbourne cadet. She has since held several postings, including Europe correspondent from 2010 to 2013. In 2008, she won the Walkley Award for Best Radio Current Affairs Report for her investigation into the Victorian Medical Practitioners Board, whose negligence had contributed to the sexual assaults of 14 women.

Rachael was the creator, investigator, and host of the ABC's first true-crime podcast, Trace, which reviewed the cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James. Trace won the 2017 Walkley Award for Innovation for the way the podcast tapped into broad community grapevines and attracted vital new leads from the public that were rolled into subsequent episodes, which allowed Trace to evolve as it went to air.